Baltimore police officer seen striking man in video resigns, department says

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Baltimore cop on paid leave after viral video beating

Raw cell phone video filmed by local rapper Yung Inkky shows a Baltimore officer beating a man and pushing him to the ground.

The Baltimore police officer who was seen in cell phone video striking a man several times and knocking him down over steps on a sidewalk is no longer with the department, police said in a statement late Sunday.

Interim Police Commissioner Garry Tuggle accepted the officer's resignation.

The police officer, who was not officially identified had served on the department for just over a year. He was suspended shortly after the video first surfaced on Saturday.

The other officer in the video is on administrative duties, police said.

The Baltimore Sun reported that police said the incident started after the man was stopped by police, let go and then approached again.

“When he was asked for his identification, the situation escalated when he refused,” police told the paper. “The police officer then struck the man several times.”

The video begins with the officer standing in front of a black man who has his back to a wall. The officer, who is also black, can be seen shoving the man in the chest before the officer began to throw punches. The man tries to block punches from the officer but doesn't appear to fight back. The man is pushed over some steps by the officer who continues to throw punches, and the video ends with the officer on top of him.

Warren Brown, an attorney for the man who was knocked down, identified his client as Dashawn McGrier. Brown said his client faces charges for allegedly assaulting the officer in June, charges McGrier is contesting in court. Brown said the officer saw McGrier on Saturday and tried to provoke him as a result of their June encounter.

"He is charged with assaulting that officer then, and so here this officer now is like, you know, going after him," Brown said.

Brown said he has scheduled a Monday news conference to discuss plans for filing a complaint against the officer.

"It is just an act of police brutality that was unwarranted, and it just does nothing for police-community relations," Brown said. "It does nothing to lower crime. My client was not involved in any criminal activity. It's just gratuitous violence that's unnecessary and does no good for the city."

Brown said his client was being treated in a Baltimore hospital. Brown said McGrier "may have suffered a broken jaw, a broken nose, maybe some fractured ribs, and he had difficulty with feeling his left leg, although before I left he did say that he was beginning to get the feel back in his foot, left foot."

In a news release, police said the man was not criminally charged and has been released from custody.

The Associated Press contributed to this report