Crime & Safety
Police Brutality? Man Kicked by Cop Now Faces Own Charges for Stalking Roseville Girlfriend
But man's ex-girlfriend had little sympathy. "I'm a victim of his brutality every day," she maintained.
A YouTube video of a St. Paul police officer macing and kicking a man during an arrest for stalking a Roseville woman has gone viral.
The video is making news across the country, prompting St. Paul Police to launch a brutality investigation and suspend an officer, Jesse Zilge. (Note: Video contains obscenities and violence.)
At the same time, Eric Hightower, 30 was charged Thursday with aggravated stalking, terroristic threats and fourth-degree criminal damage to property, according to the Pioneer Press, for harassing his 20-year-old ex-girlfriend.
Hightower’s girlfriend told a WCCO-AM reporter, in an interview conducted near her Roseville home, that Highwater had violated a protection order she had obtained against him.
The Roseville woman gave birth to Hightower’s child this summer, but the baby died days after birth, prompting Hightower to become “hostile and violent” to her, according to a criminal complaint.
The woman told WCCO-AM that she was the real victim in the situation and that Hightower had kicked her in a way similar to how he was kicked by police in the video.
“For those who think he’s a victim of police brutality, I’m a victim of his brutality every day—every day he stalks me, every day he puts his hands on me, every day my son has to see him put his hands on me,” she told WCCO-AM reporter Edgar Linares.
In a voicemail message the woman played for police, Hightower told her, "You're about to get your mother (expletive) head blew the (expletive) off!" according to a police complaint.
St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman said that the video “raises serious questions about the conduct of the officer,” and St. Paul Police Chief said it “raised some serious concerns about the use of force of one of my officers,” according to the Pioneer Press.
Hightower spoke with the Pioneer Press the day after his arrest.
"It was like he was kicking a football or something," Hightowe said. "He kicked me so hard, he knocked the wind completely out of me."
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