A screenshot from the bodycam footage exhibits 70-year-old Lich Vu earlier than he was slammed to the bottom by an Oklahoma Metropolis police officer on Oct. 27.
Oklahoma Metropolis Police Division/Fb/Screenshot by NPR
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Oklahoma Metropolis Police Division/Fb/Screenshot by NPR
An Oklahoma Metropolis police officer is beneath investigation and on paid depart following the discharge of physique digicam footage that exhibits him slamming an aged Vietnamese man to the bottom throughout a site visitors cease. The person suffered a mind bleed and stays hospitalized after the incident.
The footage exhibits the Oct. 27 occasion that begins with Officer Joseph Gibson explaining to 70-year-old Lich Vu that he was being issued a ticket for an improper U-turn.
There seems to be a language barrier between the 2 as they argue over whether or not Vu would signal the quotation. Vu finally exits the automobile and the argument continues.
Gibson insists that if Vu will not signal the ticket, he’ll be taken to jail.
“I am able to go to jail,” Vu stated.
They proceed arguing and Vu seems to inform Gibson to “shut up” whereas tapping the officer’s chest with the again of his fingers.
That prompts Gibson to slam Vu to the bottom.
A girl, who had earlier within the video recognized herself as Vu’s spouse, asks Gibson to name an ambulance because the officer continues to place handcuffs on a seemingly unresponsive Vu.
Vu’s daughter posted to Instagram that her father was frail and already in ailing well being earlier than the slamming incident — affected by bone most cancers —and that the pressure of the shove left Vu with a damaged neck.
“This isn’t the way you deal with somebody that’s 5’3, 115 lbs with bone most cancers after a automobile accident,” Teresa Vu wrote on Oct. 28, alongside footage that confirmed Vu’s head bloodied, dented and bruised.
“Particularly if English is their second language,” she added. “I’ll always remember this, particularly if my dad can not get well and passes away.”
In an update earlier this month, the daughter shared that Vu was nonetheless within the hospital and was on a feeding tube and affected by reminiscence loss.
“He is acutely aware now; he can converse and acknowledge individuals. Typically he will get pissed off as a result of he cannot bear in mind why he is there or how he received there, which is comprehensible. He cannot swallow something correctly due to his neck fracture,” she wrote on Nov. 6.
“He nonetheless has a bit of little bit of bleeding/blood leftover from his mind bleed,” she stated, including that he had surgical procedure scheduled for later within the week.
The Oklahoma Metropolis Police Division stated in a press release that an inner investigation into the incident started “instantly” and that Gibson, a six-year veteran on the pressure, can be on paid depart till the investigation was accomplished.
Talking to Oklahoma Metropolis’s News 9 on Wednesday, Police Chief Ron Bacy stated there was no timeline on when the investigation can be accomplished, however that officers have been working shortly to achieve a conclusion within the matter.
“I believe anybody can acknowledge that the video is disturbing, and we perceive the neighborhood’s issues,” he stated.
“As chief of police, my job is to make sure a good and thorough investigation to supply due course of for all concerned events,” Bacy stated, dismissing issues that it might be unfair to have officers investigating one in all their very own colleagues.
“It may be forwarded to and reviewed by a prosecuting authority, which is totally unbiased from the police division, and they’re going to make an evaluation on that on their very own,” he stated.
