A woman who says she saw Denver police brutalizing Thomas Charles Armstrong on the night of Nov. 11 in northeast Denver was identified on 9News Tuesday as Bonnie Timothy.
Timothy, a hospital worker on her way home from work at the time, had told a Denver Post reporter earlier that she saw the handcuffed Armstrong being hit and kicked by police as he lay on the ground screaming for help at East 11th Avenue near Xenia Street. But it wasn’t until Tuesday that her name was reported and she talked to police for the first time.
The incident has spurred accusations of police brutality.
“The gentleman was handcuffed … with his hands like so, and they’re kicking him and hitting him, unmercifully, and he’s screaming, ‘Help me. They’re gonna kill me,”‘ she told 9News. “There was no need. … Nobody deserved what that man got.”
Armstrong, 37, suffered kidney failure, a fractured nose, and bruises and cuts.
Police say Armstrong was approached by the officer because he was acting suspiciously while walking back and forth across East 11th Avenue and that the fight began when police could not subdue him.
Police spokeswoman Virginia Lopez told 9News that investigators wonder why Timothy came forward at this time.
“If an officer is engaged in that type of activity where there is unnecessary force applied once a subject is handcuffed, subdued and under control, then of course that officer would face disciplinary action, but at this point, there is no reason to believe this is what transpired that night,” Lopez said.
