AUBURN, Wash. — An Auburn police officer has been placed on administrative leave after video posted online appears to show the officer repeatedly hitting a man while attempting to take him into custody.
The encounter happened on Auburn Way North after police say the man had been running in and out of traffic and trying to get into moving vehicles.
Video of the encounter appears to show an officer on top of the man while attempting to handcuff him and repeatedly striking him in the head and face.
Auburn police said the man refused to comply with officers’ commands, prompting an officer to use a Taser. When the officer tried to handcuff the man, the department says a struggle ensued. The department said it ultimately took four officers to get the man under control and into handcuffs.
The man did not appear to be seriously injured, according to police, but was taken to a hospital.
Todd A. Fee Sr., who works at a nearby car dealership, told KIRO 7 he saw the events leading up to the encounter while he was taking a customer on a test drive.
“We’re just making idle chit chat and I just look up and here’s this guy in the middle of Auburn Way, literally trying to jump in front of our car,” Fee said.
Fee said his customer managed to avoid the man. When they looked in the rearview mirror, Fee said they saw him approaching other vehicles.
“He’s going and grabbing door handles as cars are slowing down to avoid him,” Fee said.
Fee described the situation as frightening, particularly given the traffic on Auburn Way.
“He was clearly, you could see how big his eyes were,” Fee said. “It was scary.”
At the same time, Fee questioned the amount of force he later saw used by police.
“The flip side of the coin is there’s no need for excessive use like that by the police,” Fee said. “There’s lots of other ways they could have de-escalated that situation.”
The officer seen in the video has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation.
KIRO 7 asked Jerry Rodriguez, who spent 35 years in law enforcement and now teaches, trains and consults on police practices, what investigators could consider when reviewing an incident like this.
Rodriguez said criminal and administrative investigations examine different questions.
“Criminal investigators are looking at whether the officer’s actions, their use of force, was legally justified,” Rodriguez said.
An administrative investigation, he said, looks more broadly at what happened before, during and immediately after the incident and whether the officer followed department policies, procedures and training.
Rodriguez said investigators could also examine whether a reasonably trained officer facing the same circumstances would have used the same type of force.
“It is a fine line,” Rodriguez said.
KIRO 7 asked Auburn police who is handling the administrative investigation and whether they are also conducting a criminal investigation into the officer’s conduct.
The department did not respond to those questions.
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