A bodycam video from a Miami police officer shows the rough 2017 arrest of Ravon Boyd, which shows an officer kicking him in the head. NBC 6’s Steve Litz reports.
A civilian investigative panel is looking into a police body camera video released Tuesday that shows officers forcefully arresting a suspect in what the man's lawyer is calling police brutality.
The footage shows the May 2017 arrest of Ravon Boyd, a suspect in an armed robbery who was involved in a foot chase with officers, according to an internal affairs report.
Boyd's attorney says the video shows an officer running at Boyd and kicking him in the head. The officer, identified as Sgt. Claude Adam, later told investigators that he was kicking at an item on the ground that he initially believed was a weapon, the report said.
"Ravon gave himself up. He got on the ground, he showed his hands, and yet he was still beaten," attorney Andrew Rier said.
A second officer was accused of covering his body camera with his hand, but he told investigators he was tired after running after Boyd and was resting his arm on his police radio, the report said.
Adam was cleared of wrongdoing by internal affairs, who noted in the report that it couldn't be determined from the video whether he made physical contact with Boyd. The other officer was found to have been in violation of department procedure for covering the camera. He later resigned, Boyd's attorney said.
"These officers are supposed to serve and protect, and they misused their badges, they did this to my son with a body camera on, imagine what would’ve happened to him without one," mother Carla Boyd told NBC 6 Tuesday.
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Boyd was charged with strong arm robbery, possession of cannabis and resisting arrest with violence. He was later convicted and remains behind bars, scheduled to be released from prison in 2020.
Miami's civilian investigative panel is now reviewing the video.
