Alabama police investigating after video shows officer stomping on man’s leg

A police department has opened an investigation after live footage of one of its officers stomping on a man’s leg was aired on Facebook.

As local station WHNT-TV reports, officers from the Huntsville Police Department were seen in a Facebook Live video struggling with a man on the ground at a Mapco gas station. When the video begins, two officers can be seen already struggling with the man when a third officer comes into frame and begins to stomp on his leg shouting, “Stop resisting!”

They are then seen lifting the man up to his feet and leading him out of the gas station.

The man who took the video, Bruce Turner, stated that a Mapco employee told him the man had been harassing women inside the store.

The man in the video was later identified as Huntsville resident Kemontae Hobbs. Hobbs, 22, was charged with obstructing government operations and resisting arrest on Sunday.

“We understand concerns with use of force techniques used in the arrest and we take these concerns seriously,” the Huntsville Police Department said in a statement provided to WHNT-TV. “The full incident is under review including all actions taken by officers during the arrest process.”

Hobbs’s mother, Kimberlyn Hayes, spoke out on Tuesday, telling local media that her son had been diagnosed with schizophrenia many years ago and occasionally leaves the house on his own.

“I just don’t like the fact that they were stomping his leg and they tased him,” Hayes said, according to WHNT. “They tased him when he was already down. So I just feel like something needs to be done about it. That’s why I have my lawyer right here.”

Hayes stated that she intends to file a lawsuit against Huntsville.

Huntsville City Councilman Devyn Keith commented under the video, calling is seen a “reckless use of force.”

“My issue and why I am baffled is … the fact he storms in at the top and automatically goes to stomping,” Keith wrote, according to WHNT. “The other officer[s] start to restrain and state [communicate]. The original officer still in what seems to be body control … never throws a punch … the Stomping Officer never aides [sic] in control.”