Ohio Officer's Actions Found Unreasonable in Kicking of Handcuffed Suspect

A Columbus, OH, deputy chief has found the actions of an officer shown on video kicking a restrained man as unreasonable, according to a statement released Wednesday afternoon.

A Columbus, OH, deputy chief has found the actions of an officer shown on video kicking a restrained man as unreasonable, according to a statement released Wednesday afternoon.

Witnesses to the April 8 incident posted a video on YouTube of Demarko Anderson, 26 lying on his chest on a concrete driveway. Anderson appears to be restrained by Officer Darren Stephens with his hands behind his back when Officer Zachary Rosen darts in and strikes him once in the head with his left foot.

Officers were responding to a report of a man with a gun near a residence in Linden. Stephens watched Anderson walking away from a Maize Road residence and tried to handcuff him, according to a police report. Anderson pulled away, then elbowed Stephens in the face and ran south. Stephens was able to catch Anderson and handcuff him.

Rosen, 32, a Columbus Division of Police officer since December 2010, told investigators that he was fearful Anderson still had a gun, so he ran at full speed and stomped once on Anderson’s left shoulder.

“If the fear of a weapon and threat of death were real, it makes no sense that Officer Rosen stood around after the apprehension and did not search Mr. Anderson for weapons,” Deputy Chief Thomas Quinlan wrote in a report.

Quinlan overruled other supervisors in the chain of command with his decision, which recommended Rosen be disciplined, the Columbus Dispatch reports.

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