According to a news outlet, an outraged community wants answers after a viral video showed a Mississippi Highway Patrol officer assaulting a Black man who was handcuffed.
The video, filmed in McComb, Mississippi, shows a Mississippi Highway Patrolman forcefully handling Eugene Lewis while he was in custody, according to Wiz Nation.
Packer and Darius Lewis, Eugene’s brothers, are heard off camera in the nearly five-minute video addressing the actions of the police officer, Wiz Nation reports.
The two men stay a safe distance from the officer but remain to witness the brutality.
“We looking at you choke the man, but we gonna stay back and record you.”
“We wanna know why you was in a car jumping on him.”
“We don’t give a damn…you was just in the back seat beating him up,” they said to the officer.
The officer aggressively shoves a handcuffed Eugene to the ground by his neck, flings him onto the side of the road, and proceeds to jump on top of him. All three brothers were taken into custody, according to WJTV.
McComb Mayor Quordiniah Lockley said to the news station that the incident is currently under investigation by the state, Raw Story reports.
“This is alarming that something like this would happen within the city limits of McComb,” Lockley said.
Internal Affairs and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation are working to examine the incident. The predominantly Black community is located about 80 miles south of Jackson, MS, according to Wiz Nation.
Eugene told WJTV that he didn’t know what would have occurred if his brother did not live-stream the incident. He said the officer stopped him for speeding 35 mph in a 30 mph zone.
“I can’t never let this go,” Eugene told WJTV. “I ain’t did nothing to him. And I know this same white guy will do to another Black guy like that.”
Rep. Daryl Porter, who represents the 98th district, including Pike and Walthall Counties, released a statement voicing his concern after viewing the video.
“Those who have watched the video, including myself, find the contents alarming,” wrote Porter, Wiz Nation reports.
Police officers’ violent interactions with Black citizens are an ongoing conversation about police brutality.
Last month in Akron, Ohio, the police department was investigating an officer caught on video brutally assaulting a Black man in the head while another officer pinned down his arms.
A few weeks later, police officers in Oakland, Tennessee, faced accusations of an “animalistic” assault using batons and tasers on a Black man in his own home after he allegedly ran a stop sign and didn’t pull over, according to Raw Story.