Cop Punches Black Store Owner After Confusing Him For Robbery Suspect

Source: Mike Kemp / Getty

Authorities in Alabama just released body-camera footage that shows a cop punching a liquor store owner who called 911 to report a robbery.

According to reports from the Independent, on March 15, the white police officer hit the black owder, Kevin Penn, because he allegedly thought he was the suspect for the robbery. The Decatur police confessed to the mistake this past Monday.

During a news conference that same day, department chief Nate Allen showed footage of the incident, which also shows Penn getting arrested. Conveniently, the footage cut out right before the cop punched the shopkeeper.

The publication reports that in the body-cam footage, the officer in front of the cop wearing the body cam asks Penn to put down his own gun. That’s when Penn said, “My gun is there, my gun is here, I’m not going to put my gun down if you got guns.” When one of the officers warns Penn, he says that he has “a right to have my gun.”

The body-cam footage concludes with an officer pointing a gun at Penn before another officer strikes him, with all three wrestling him to the ground. The police later charged the store owner with obstructing the officers’ investigation of the robbery. Penn has alleged that the cops broke his jaw.

Luckily, surveillance footage from the liquor store tells a completely different story, giving us the details we need to piece together a story that’s all too common. In the video, Penn is seen holding his gun and then appears to either remove or reload the clip on the counter before the police walk in. After that is when the  cops’ attack on Kevin begins.

On Twitter, Penn’s cousin wrote that the cops broke his shoulder, “let[ting] the robber walk right pass them and immediately attacked my cousin.”