UNJUSTIFIED

Atlanta Cop: ‘Crowd’ Made Me Tase, Punch Man on Video

Thought he was “preparing” to smoke crack cocaine, but found no drugs on him.

Atlanta police officers shown on a widely circulated video said they used a Taser and then punched a man because a crowd of about two dozen people had gathered and they wanted to get control of it. The 16-second clip shows Officer Quinton Green punching Rickey Williams during his June 22 arrest. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports police believed Williams was “possibly preparing to smoke crack cocaine” when they approached him. When they asked Williams put his hands behind his back, he allegedly “dropped to the ground and started swinging his arms and kicking wildly,” according to the report. Another officer, Stephenson Camille, used a Taser, but it had no effect. “I feared that the longer this tussle continued with Mr. Williams, the angrier and more uncontrollable the crowd would become, so I deployed my city-issued Taser,” Camille wrote. Green punched Williams twice in the rib cage, according to the report. But the video shows Green punching Williams three times in the neck and head. Officers did not find illegal narcotics or a “crack-smoking device” on Williams, the Journal-Constitution reports. He was charged with obstruction. Green was placed on administrative leave this week, pending an investigation.