Chief Manley addressed viral video of officer punching suspect
Austin police chief Brian Manley is speaking out about a viral video that surfaced Wednesday.
The video appears to show an officer punch a man in the face while another pins him down.
Chief Manley said what is shown in the video only paints part of the whole picture.
Right now, they are doing an investigation in order to get all the pieces, especially with how much attention the video is getting. "I think that when you look at a video like this, I understand the concern that's brought forward but I also understand that the officers are in a position where they are dealing with someone whose armed with a deadly weapon," said Manley.
Read APD investigating downtown arrest caught on video
Chief Manley said Justin Grant, the man who you see pinned on the ground in this video, was already causing trouble before officers arrived. "He grabbed a hold of a night club employee who was denying him entry into the club, Reports of him grabbing a hold of him tightly pulling his face close to him and telling him to let him into the bar or something bad was going to happen," said Manley.
Once officers arrived on scene Manley said Grant began to threaten them when he was confronted. "He did in fact reach for his knife as the officers got there and were able to get their hands on him. That is a statement from one of the witnesses," said Manley.
The officers tried to detain grant, according to Manley, even tased him yet the resistance kept up.
"This is around the time the video that has been posted on social media and displayed in the media kind of picks up," said Manley. The video appears to shows one of the officers punching Grant which draws concerns from those who witnessed the events. “I feel like the situation could have been handled differently than it was,” said Peter Nicholas. Manley addressing those concerns.
"The purpose of any use of force is to overcome the resistance that you are facing in that moment, so if it's an attempt to affect that arrest then you are using force to overcome the resistance that you are facing in that moment," said Manley.
One of the issues Manely says they are facing in their review is the lack of video before the events shown. "Both of these officers were wearing body worn cameras however one of the officers was knocked off of his uniform as soon as the struggle began and during the struggle one of the officer’s camera stopped recording," said Manley.
Grant was charged with making a terrorist threat, resisting arrest and possession.
Chief Manley said they are also looking into the actions taken against the woman in the video who he says was interfering with the arrest.
He is also asking anyone who was a witness or has video to contact Austin police.