A California girl was in shock after she witnessed an unarmed Black man being hit repeatedly with a baton by an officer.
Melissa Navarrete stated she was sitting with a buddy at a restaurant on Friday, and so they witnessed an officer beating an unarmed Black man with a baton in Barstow, California. She felt one thing was flawed and pulled out her cellphone to document the incident.
“We’d see in the course of the road a cop with a baton holding it like a bat swinging at this man. The man had his palms up, and he’s transferring backward like he’s not making an attempt to struggle the cop. He’s not making an attempt to withstand something… he’s simply transferring and the cop is simply swinging and swinging,” Navarrete instructed Fox 11 Information.
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The unarmed Black man could be later recognized as 43-year-old Gary Christian.
The video exhibits the officer swinging the baton towards Christian as he’s backing away. The officer then strikes Christian, and he stumbles to the bottom. The officer hits Christian extra as he lay on the bottom together with his palms up, and two extra officers seem within the video. All of them encompass Christian and finally positioned him beneath arrest.
As Navarrete recorded, she was overheard within the background saying issues like “Simply get down! Oh my God! Oh My God!” as she pleaded for the officers to cease hitting him with the baton.
Barstow Police Division stated in a press release on Fb that they have been conscious a resident recorded the incident and they’d conduct their very own investigation.
Barstow Police Division additionally despatched the next assertion to Fox 11:
“Christian refused to adjust to an officer’s orders and bodily assaulted the officer; The officer instantly deployed his taser which was ineffective. Christian then bodily assaulted the officer a second timer inflicting the officer to deploy his baton, the officer struck Christian together with his baton whereas trying to arrest him.”
Navarrete instructed Fox 11 that she and her buddy didn’t see a Taser getting used.
“I don’t consider that. What I noticed, he wasn’t resisting,” Navarrete stated to Fox 11.
Police stated that Christian was wished for an impressive felony and a no-bail probation violation warrant.
Christian was reportedly taken to a hospital, the place he was handled for minor contusions and abrasions to his proper leg, in keeping with Barstow Police. He was booked at a detention heart in Adelanto for resisting arrest and an impressive felony warrant for violating probation. He has two court docket dates set for Might 2 and Might 3.
