Justice Department investigating 3 Arkansas cops for beating man

Source: Wesley Hitt / Getty

Earlier this week BOSSIP reported on three Mulberry, Arkansas police officers who had been suspended after they were seen beating a man viciously in a viral video. Today we got the news that this case has escalated significantly and the federal government is now involved.

According to NBCNews, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division alongside the U.S. Attorney General’s office is running its own investigation into the violent incident. Charlie Robbins, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office made a public statement detailing their role:

“The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Arkansas, the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, and the FBI Little Rock Field Office have opened a civil rights investigation into the August 21st incident in Crawford County involving Randal Worcester,” Robbins said. “The FBI and the Arkansas State Police will collect all available evidence and will ensure that the investigation is conducted in a fair, thorough, and impartial manner. As this is an ongoing investigation, we are not able to comment further at this time.”

The higher-ups in the Mulberry Police Department outed the names of the three officers involved as deputies Zack King, Levi White, and Thell Riddle. One of the MPD sheriffs, Jimmy Damante, said that while none of the officers were wearing body cameras at the time, the dash cameras “put a little more light” on things that “weren’t caught on the citizen’s camera.” There is literally nothing that could have happened to warrant banging a man’s head against the concrete and punching him in the face repeatedly while being held down but sure, Jan.