New Orleans – Three New Orleans police officers were arrested late Sunday and charged with battery after two of them repeatedly punched a 64-year-old man accused of public intoxication and the other assaulted an Associated Press Television News producer as a cameraman taped the confrontations.
The officers were released and ordered to appear in court at a later date, Capt. Marlon Defillo said. The officers also were suspended without pay, he said.
“We have great concern with what we saw this morning,” Defillo said after he and about a dozen other high-ranking police department officials watched the APTN footage Sunday. “It’s a troubling tape, no doubt about it. … This department will take immediate action.”
The assaults come as the department, long plagued by allegations of brutality and corruption, struggles with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the resignation last month of Police Superintendent Eddie Compass.
The tape shows an officer hitting the man at least four times in the head Saturday night as he stood outside a bar near Bourbon Street. The suspect, Robert Davis, appeared to resist, twisting and flailing as he was dragged to the ground by four officers. Another of the four officers then kneed Davis and punched him twice. Davis was facedown on the sidewalk with blood streaming down his arm and into the gutter.
Meanwhile, a fifth officer ordered AP producer Rich Matthews and the cameraman to stop recording. When Matthews held up his credentials and explained he was working, the officer grabbed the producer, leaned him backward over a car, jabbed him in the stomach and unleashed a profanity-laced tirade.
“I’ve been here for six weeks trying to keep … alive. … Go home!” shouted the officer, who later identified himself as S.M. Smith.
Defillo identified the patrolmen as Stuart Smith, Lance Schilling and Robert Evangelist. Smith is an eight-year veteran of the department, and the other officers have each been on the force for three years, he said.
Police said Davis, 64, of New Orleans, was booked on public intoxication, resisting arrest, battery on a police officer and public intimidation. He was treated at a hospital and released into police custody.
A mug shot of Davis, provided by a jailer, showed him with his left eye swollen shut, an apparent abrasion on the side of his neck and a cut on his right temple.
“The incidents taped by our cameraman are extremely troubling,” said Mike Silverman, AP’s managing editor. “We are heartened that the police department is taking them seriously and promising a thorough investigation.”
Davis, who is black, was subdued at the intersection of Conti and Bourbon streets.
