“He would have to be doing something pretty serious to get hit in the head like that,' one expert said of the police officers' use of force in the video.
An Arkansas sheriff’s deputy was caught in the video repeatedly punching and kneeing Worcester in the head before grabbing his hair and slamming him against the pavement. As that was happening, another officer was holding Worcester down as a third also kneed him over and over.
Russell Wood, a lawyer for the two Crawford County sheriff’s deputies, stressed that the 34-second clip doesn’t show everything that happened and said Worcester had earlier attacked one of the deputies, leaving him with a concussion. Wood said in a statement that the deputy’s “pain compliance strikes” didn’t do any “damage” and that Worcester’s own violence authorized the officers to use “all necessary force.
Worcester’s arrest came after police received reports about a man making threats outside of a convenience store in Mulberry, a community of about 1,600 people roughly 140 miles northwest of Little Rock, near the Oklahoma state line. He was treated at a hospital on Sunday before being jailed on charges including second-degree battery and resisting arrest. He was released Monday on a $15,000 bond.
Wood said Worcester had been threatening a woman with a knife and, upon being confronted, grabbed White by the legs and slammed him to the ground, stunning the deputy. Worcester then climbed onto White and “began striking him on the back of the head and face,” the attorney said.