An officer with the Seattle Police Department was placed on paid leave after a video appeared to show him rolling his bike over a protester’s head.
The Office of Police Accountability, a civilian-led review board, demanded an investigation into the incident after receiving more than 30 complaints from citizens who saw footage of the officer hitting the protester on Wednesday night. The incident took place in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, where protesters set up an autonomous zone for several days earlier this year called CHAZ and later CHOP.
The King County Sheriff’s Office was asked to investigate the officer’s actions after the Seattle Police Department’s Force Investigation Team spotted “potential violations of SPD policy, as well as potential criminal conduct” in the officer’s actions.
Video of the incident was captured on Wednesday night while police were moving to clear a group of protesters who had been demonstrating following the grand jury’s decision in Breonna Taylor’s case. The video shows officers marching toward a group of protesters when one demonstrator decided to lie on the ground as the officers approached.
The officer in question appeared to roll his bike over the protester’s head. Many bystanders reacted with shock, with one man shouting, “He just ran over his head!”
Protesters have been on the streets of Seattle for months, marching against police brutality and racial injustice in the United States.
