More than ten Philadelphia cops were caught on video beating, kicking and tasing a man after he had been stopped for riding his bicycle the wrong way down a one-way street.
The incident took place in April, leaving Tyree Carroll, 22, jailed on several charges, including felony assault.
But the video, which surfaced today, shows he was the victim of police brutality, yelling for his grandmother to help him, who apparently lived in the neighborhood.
“Tase the motherfucker!” one cop yells after pulling up in a patrol car to take part in the beating, even though Carroll was already restrained and not resisting.
More cops pull up and continue the beating as a citizen records unknowing to the police officers.
The video was posted on the website of Jasmyne Cannick, a journalist in Los Angeles, who stated the following:
Two neighbors videotaped the vicious beating on their cell phones. One video was too dark to be useful, but the other captured the incident quite graphically and included a narration by the witness.
Tyree was initially charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, resisting arrest and several drug charges stemming from a small amount of crack cocaine allegedly found on him.
At Tyree’s preliminary hearing on June 30 all of the charges were maintained, except for one of the assault charges which was reduced to a second degree felony. His case has been ordered to go to trial. The bail was decreased from $15,000 to $5,000 but Tyree was still ineligible to be released on bail due to a probation violation on a previous case. Tyree’s next court appearance will be his arraignment hearing scheduled for July 21. He is currently being represented by a public defender.
I’m told that the arresting officer was John Ellis with the Philadelphia Police Department’s narcotics squad. Ellis testified at Tyree’s preliminary hearing that the incident began when he allegedly observed a couple of men doing what looked like a drug transaction on the corner of Chew and Chelten in Germantown. Ellis allegedly observed Tyree walking up to and speaking with the men. The officer said he saw no money or goods change hands. Ellis went on to explain when he later saw Tyree on his bike he stopped him saying he was riding his bike the wrong way on a one-way street. Another officer also testified at the preliminary hearing and both cops claim Tyree bit them while trying to get away and claimed they had to go to the hospital and were put on antibiotics. They both admitted to punching and hitting Tyree with billy clubs, but not kicking or tasering him as could be seen in the video. Ellis said he knows Tyree and that “he’s a nice guy” and that when Tyree was in the back of the police car on the way to the hospital following the beating Tyree apologized to him saying “I bad, I bad.”
Cannick said that Carroll remains in jail but his family is working with the public defender to get the charges dropped. It is not clear if the judge has seen the video.