A Baltimore police officer resigned after a cellphone video emerged showing him repeatedly beating a man to the ground this weekend, Fox News reported.
The police department confirmed the unidentified officer's resignation Sunday, noting that a second unidentified officer involved in the incident, who did little to intervene, had been placed on administrative duties pending investigations.
The incident took place Saturday morning in East Baltimore, when the two officers confronted 26-year-old Dashawn McGrier, who was sitting on the steps outside Q's Bar and Liquors in the 2600 block of E. Monument St., The Baltimore Sun noted.
They let him go but then approached him again to provide him with a citizen contact sheet, which is mandatory for police officers to fill out any time they talk to a citizen in relation to any type of investigation, said police spokesman T. J. Smith, according to CNN.
"When he was asked for his identification, the situation escalated when he refused," police said.
Video footage of the encounter shows the police officer throw several punches at McGrier and forcing him to the ground.
The other officer stands by, placing his hand on the shoulder of his colleague only once he has McGrier pinned to the floor.
Warren Brown, an attorney for McGrier, said his client had to be taken to hospital and "may have suffered a broken jaw, a broken nose, maybe some fractured ribs, and he had difficulty with feeling his left leg, although before I left he did say that he was beginning to get the feel back in his foot, left foot," Fox News said.
Brown said his client had faced a previous encounter with the police officer, which led to him being charged with alleged assault of an officer.
He said the officer had tried to provoke McGrier over the weekend as a result of that incident and that both confrontations were unjustified, Fox News reported.
"It is just an act of police brutality that was unwarranted, and it just does nothing for police-community relations," Brown said. "It does nothing to lower crime. My client was not involved in any criminal activity. It's just gratuitous violence that's unnecessary and does no good for the city."
The incident comes a year after the Baltimore police department faced heavy criticism when videos emerged showing multiple officers working together to plant evidence during a drug arrest.
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