Cops taken off street duty after beatings
TV footage showed 3 suspects being hit during traffic stop
Patrick Walters, Associated Press
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/08/MNEJ10ICMP.DTL
Thursday, May 8, 2008
A police sergeant and five officers were pulled from street duty
Wednesday as city officials investigated television footage showing a
group of officers kicking and punching three suspects during a traffic
stop.
More than a dozen officers were involved, and Police Commissioner
Charles Ramsey said investigators were having the videotape enhanced
to help determine how many of them were actually striking the
suspects.
Any information police find will be sent to prosecutors, who will
determine whether charges are warranted.
"We certainly are concerned about what we saw on the tape," Ramsey
said at a news conference. "The behavior that at least was exhibited
on the tape is unacceptable."
Police stopped the suspects' car while investigating a triple shooting
Monday night. No weapons were found in the car or on the suspects,
Ramsey said, but officers said they had seen them shoot three people
on a drug corner moments earlier.
The video, shot by television station WTXF from a helicopter, showed
three police cars stopping a car on the side of a road.
Officers gathered around the vehicle and pulled out three men. About a
half-dozen officers held two men on the ground on the driver's side.
Both were kicked repeatedly, while one was punched; one also appeared
to be struck with a baton.
On the other side of the car, the video showed, more officers kicking
a third man who ends up on the ground.
The three suspects - Dwayne Dyches, Brian Hall and Pete Hopkins - were
each charged with attempted murder in the shooting, police said.
The beating happened two days after the fatal shooting of a city
officer, the third killed on duty in two years.
Ramsey said police have been on edge since Officer Stephen Liczbinski
was killed.
"We do expect them to maintain a level of conduct on the street that
is beyond reproach," the commissioner said. "The sergeant should have
taken some kind of action to intervene."
Liczbinski was shot with an assault rifle after a robbery on Saturday.
One suspect was fatally shot by police soon after, another was
arrested Sunday, and a third remains on the lam.
D. Scott Perrine, an attorney for the three suspects, has said that as
terrible as the officer's death was, it does not excuse what police
did to the three men. He said that Dyches had a welt on his head the
size of a baseball and that one of his legs was seriously injured. He
said he didn't know the extent of the other men's injuries.
The mother of one of the suspects said she was outraged.
"I'm horrified to see that our city cops would beat some human being
like they did, like a gang-style fight," Leomia Dyches said. She
added, "I'd like to see them tried for what they did."
This article appeared on page A - 6 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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