On June 10, Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears said his office launched a criminal investigation regarding a May 31 incident involving Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD) officers and a woman.
The incident, which was caught on camera by News 8 reporter Richard Essex, involved several IMPD officers beating a woman with a baton soon after curfew began May 31. The video was brought up several times during a June 10 meeting of the city-county council’s Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee.
IMPD Chief Randal Taylor said the video and the actions of the officers made him uncomfortable, but added the actions taken were not necessarily illegal, saying the woman was resisting arrest.
Councilor Leroy Robinson challenged Taylor on this claim.
“You mentioned ‘resisting arrest,’” Robinson said. “She clearly had her arms to her side, she clearly did not move. … I’m sure you saw that but I just wanted to put that out there.”
Taylor responded by saying, from the video he saw, it looked like the woman was resisting arrest.
Mears said his office launched its investigation June 9 after IMPD completed a separate internal affairs investigation.
“We owe it to the officers to investigate that and, trust me, if there is something that comes out of that investigation, they will be disciplined,” Taylor said. “And now we have the possibility of criminal charges if that’s what Mr. Mears decides to do.”
The officers involved in the incident have been reassigned to a different detail.
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