Video that’s now gone viral and outraged hundreds shows a brutal police encounter at an Applebee’s restaurant in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where a man was wrongfully beaten while holding a baby and arrested after being accused of a hit-and-run.
Kenosha police reported that on July 20, they were called to the scene of a serious hit-and-run not far from an Applebee’s. They believed the suspects behind the crash, who were described as two Black men and a woman carrying a child, had fled to the restaurant.
A written statement notes that the Applebee’s employees directed police to the family. Officers reported that the man seen in the video holding a baby attempted to leave when they ordered him to stay.
As officers attempt to apprehend him, someone in the video is heard shouting, “Get the baby!” while the man is surrounded by several officers yelling, “I’m not doing sh*t!”
After a struggle, the child is handed off to someone else, and police immediately force the man to the ground and begin to cuff him. At that moment, one officer begins pummeling the man numerous times with his fist. Employees inside the restaurant yell at him to stop.
The officers keep the employees and patrons away from the man. One officer even tells someone, “You’re obstructing my investigation.”
It turns out that the actual hit-and-run suspects were hiding in the bathroom. They were charged. The man holding the baby and a woman in his party were also charged in connection with the police encounter, even though officers later learned that the family had nothing to do with the crash.
Restaurant manager Jennifer Harris said that when officers approached the man, they told him they needed to detain and question him. When he refused, that’s when the encounter escalated. He told them he needed to change his son’s diaper, but they tackled him into a wall, and the baby ended up hitting its head. They also wrestled him to the ground when the child was in his hands.
“It’s just sad. I just felt bad for the baby, that it had to go through that traumatic event,” Harris told local news station WISN.
Harris was fired from her position after 12 years on the job for reportedly allowing the videos to be recorded and shared online by her employees.
“I’d like to see them fired, personally,” Tanya McLean, executive director of Leaders of Kenosha, told WTMJ-TV. “That’s not OK. We need to learn lessons from the past. Are we safe in Kenosha? We have police officers. They’re supposed to be our community partners, they’re here to serve and protect us. And I don’t feel safe.”
The Kenosha Police Department has yet to release the body camera footage. There’s also no word on the man’s detainment status, if he was released, or if he was injured.
A spokesperson released this statement following the incident:
“The Kenosha Police Department has an internal process in place to review our officer’s use of force that is more robust than what the state requires. We were aware of the incident immediately as a result of that process and started a review of it. Currently it is under investigation. The investigation when complete will be comprehensive and dictate whether the officers acted appropriately or not and if any disciplinary action or additional training is deemed necessary.”
Kenosha, Wisconsin, was the city where Jacob Blake was left partly paralyzed after being shot in the back seven times by a police officer in front of Blake’s children. The shooting took place nearly three months after George Floyd was murdered and set off numerous demonstrations with hundreds of protesters. During one of those protests, Kyle Rittenhouse fatally shot two men and wounded another. He was acquitted of all charges, including homicide and attempted homicide.
