A Baltimore police officer has resigned from his position Sunday after video footage of him punching and tackling a civilian went viral over the weekend, the city's interim police commissioner said at a press conference Monday.
In the footage, which was tweeted by activist DeRay Mckesson, the officer can be seen repeatedly punching a man in the face, tackling him across steps, and pushing him onto the sidewalk, which he pins the man down to as the man bleeds from the face.
Interim Police Commissioner Gary Tuggle called the behavior "extremely disturbing" and said that a criminal investigation was ongoing.
TW: Police Violence This is a video of the @BaltimorePolice reported to be from earlier today. And this is why folks don’t have any faith in the police. @MayorPugh50, what’s your response to this? What is happening with the consent decree? https://t.co/yABsCZDEmq
"My preliminary review of particularly the public video is extremely disappointing to me," the commissioner said. "I don’t think there is any room for the activity that I saw on that, and it is extremely disturbing. With that being said, we have accepted that officer’s resignation and we still have a criminal investigation ongoing."
Tuggle said that he had also reviewed the officer's body-camera footage of the incident, which he said was "relatively consistent" and declined to go into further details about.
A second officer, present during the incident and caught on video, has been placed on administrative leave while the department reviews his conduct, according to Tuggle.
The commissioner declined to name the officers.
In a statement Saturday, Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh said that the city is "working day and night to bring about a new era of community-based Constitutional policing and will not be deterred by this or any other instance that threatens our efforts to re-establish the trust of all citizens in the Baltimore Police Department."
My statement on the video of the Baltimore Police Officer
Tuggle said at the press conference Monday that the incident shows "another deficiency in our training we can learn from."