A Tampa police officer was fired this week after an internal investigation found he put a suspect in a “chokehold” earlier this year, among other policy violations.
Officer Michael Scaglione was terminated Tuesday for violating three Tampa Police Department policies during a domestic battery call in April, the department announced in a news release.
The president of the police union said the department made the wrong call in the case and that Scaglione will fight his termination.
On April 12, Scaglione and another officer, Anthony Girouard, responded to a home in Sulphur Springs and determined there was probable cause to arrest a 36-year-old man on a domestic battery charge, according to a disposition letter to police Chief Lee Bercaw that summarizes the findings of an internal affairs investigation.
As the officers approached the man inside the home, he “refused to place his hands behind his back by bracing, tensing, and pulling away,” the letter states.
As the three men fell to the ground, Scaglione can be seen on body worn camera footage grabbing the suspect’s left wrist with his right hand to put the man in a “chokehold.” The hold rendered the man unconscious, and he went limp and began to snore, according to the letter.
Scaglione released the man and put his hand around his neck. The man awoke seconds later and resisted again by pulling his arms away from the officers. Scaglione struck the man’s head several times with his fist and placed his hand around the man’s throat to pin him to the ground, the video shows.
The officers arrested the man on charges of assault, battery, marijuana possession and resisting an officer without violence. Prosecutors dropped the first three charges the following month. On Wednesday, prosecutors dropped the resisting charge, records show.
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