Camera footage from the Athens-Clarke County Police Department shows a suspect fleeing from officers and was ruthlessly knocked down by a cop car. The Georgia authority was later fired after the video surfaced.
Around 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Officer Taylor Saulters got wind of a police call that there was a search out for Timmy Patmon, 24, for a probation violation. The young man ran from police in east Athens, GA and Saulters was seen on camera chasing the suspect.
The officer drove towards the sidewalk where Patmon is dashing and proceeded to accelerate the vehicle. He then hit the 24-year-old who rolled on the hood of the car and collapsed to the ground. The impact was so hard that it damaged Saulters’ vehicle.
Crowds of people shouted at the officer for hitting the suspect. One woman is heard yelling on video, “Oh my God! Why’d you hit that man? You can’t hit the man with a car like that!”
As the commotion of the crowd began to intensify, Saulters called for “crowd control” and Patmon was taken into custody in a different patrol car, although he requested for an ambulance due to his injuries. The young man was charged with obstructing an officer and violating his probation.
When Saulters arrived back to the police department he reportedly told one of the officers, “He [Patmon] was running this way… And I just came this way, and he ran into the hood of my car and bounced off,” according to the Washington Post.
However, the police chief and internal affairs conducted an investigation and announced the rookie’s termination in a press release less than a day later. According to local reports,
Saulters graduated from the police academy less than a year ago. His father, Capt. Jerry Saulters, heads the department’s criminal investigation division.
A police spokesman told the news source that Saulters used excessive force and violated policies, but felt that he didn’t intentionally mean to hit Patmon.
