A criminal investigation has begun in Asheville, North Carolina after a video surfaced showing a white officer using excessive force on a man accused of jaywalking and trespassing in August 2017.
The victim Johnnie Jermaine Rush, 33, just got off of work after reportedly finishing a 13-hour shift at Cracker Barrel according to Citizen Times. Rush walked across a parking lot of a business that was closed for the day and was apparently stopped by an officer in training Verino Ruggiero, who claimed to have warned Rush previously about jaywalking.
When the victim is stopped once again by the officer he replied, “All I’m trying to do is go home, man. I‘m tired. I just got off work.”
Ruggiero tells Rush that he has “two options” be written a citation or be arrested.
The 33-year-old says to the officer, “It doesn’t matter to me, man… Do what you have got to do, besides keep harassing me.”
Officer Chris Hickman then intervenes after Rush curses in annoyance, telling him to put his hands behind his back.
In the video Rush takes off running, but is chased by Hickman who’s heard yelling, “You are going to get f**ked up hardcore.”
The body camera that Officer Hickman was wearing shows him punching Rush in the head and stinging him twice with a stun gun while being restrained by he and another office. The video also shows Rush telling the officers several times that he can’t breathe.
Rush told Citizens Times, that he was taken to the hospital after the incident and said Hickman used racial language towards him.
Court records show that Rush was charged with assault on a government official; resisting, delaying and obstructing an officer, trespass and traffic offenses, however the charges were terminated by Buncombe County District Attorney’s Office.
Hickman is currently under a criminal investigation.
