Louisiana Officer Caught On Video Beating Black Motorist With A Flashlight

Source: William Nation / Getty

Lousiana state police are launching an investigation into the graphic body camera video that captured a police trooper striking a Black motorist in the head with a flashlight over 18 times while in custody.  In the video which has been officially obtained by the Associated Press, the victim, Aaron Larry Bowman can be heard crying out “I’m not resisting! I’m not resisting!” as former state trooper Jacob Brown repeatedly attacks him.

The egregious beating that occurred back in May 2019 following a traffic violation left Bowman with a broken jaw, three broken ribs, a broken wrist, and a gash on his head that required six staples. According to AP News, Brown defended his vicious assault on Bowman as a form of “pain compliance.”  State police did not immediately launch an investigation into the incident until 536 days after it happened, even though the attack was caught on camera.

“I kept thinking I was going to die that night,” Bowman told AP in a recent interview. “It was like reliving it all over again. By watching it, I broke down all over again.”

“I don’t want nobody to go through that.”

Coincidentally, Bowman’s hostile incident happened less than three weeks after the same police agency faced allegations over the horrific beating of another Black motorist named Ronald Greene. Greene died after being tased, beaten, and shackled by Lousiana state troopers on a rural roadside. Similar to Bowman, Greene’s case remained unknown until AP acquired the footage last year.

The state police released a statement on Wednesday saying that Jacob Brown, “engaged in excessive and unjustifiable actions,” and failed to report the use of force to his supervisors. Officials also believe he “intentionally mislabeled” his body camera video. Brown marked the footage as a “citizen encounter” in what investigators say was “an attempt to hide the video from any administrative review.”

The officer faces second-degree battery charges in addition to malfeasance in Bowman’s assault. He also faces state charges in two other violent arrests of Black motorists, including one incident that he allegedly bragged about in a group chat with other troopers stating that the suspect was “gonna be sore” and “it warms my heart knowing we could educate that young man.”