RSS Feed
May 23rd, 2021 
Awake Goy
Recently leaked police body cam
footage of Louisiana state troopers fatally beating and tasing a man in custody
contradicts the initial version claiming that Ronald Greene died on impact after
crashing into a tree during a police pursuit. In a statement, the Louisiana
State Police confirmed that the release of the video was unauthorized and that
the department is upset that the public now has access to some of the
suppressed footage.
On May 10, 2019, Louisiana State
Trooper Dakota DeMoss and Master Trooper Chris Hollingsworth attempted to pull
over Ronald Greene for an unspecified
traffic violation that escalated into a pursuit. According to police body
cam footage,
Greene sat in his vehicle at the end of the pursuit with his empty hands in the
air as the troopers rushed toward him.
“OK, OK,” Greene told the troopers
while surrendering to them. “I’m sorry. I’m scared. Officer, I’m scared. I’m
your brother. I’m scared.”
Reaching through the driver’s side
window, Hollingsworth shocked Greene with a stun gun as both troopers ordered
him to exit the vehicle. After Greene fell to the ground, the troopers
repeatedly punched and kicked him while firing a Taser into his back.
“Choked him and everything else
trying to get him under control,” Hollingsworth was heard saying on a separate
recording. “He was spitting blood everywhere, and all of a sudden he just went
limp.”
In another video clip, Trooper Kory
York grabbed Greene by the leg shackles and dragged him across his abdomen
despite the fact that Greene was not resisting. Greene was left facedown and
shackled for more than nine minutes before paramedics arrived to give him
medical attention.
Greene died before arriving at the
hospital. According to Union Parish Coroner Renee Smith, his death was ruled
accidental and attributed to cardiac arrest.
The Louisiana State Police
initially told Greene’s family that he died after crashing into a tree during
the pursuit. A preliminary investigative report later announced that he died
after resisting and struggling with law enforcement.
An emergency room doctor who saw
the bruises and two stun-gun prongs in Greene’s back noted that the trooper’s
account of Green simply crashing into a tree was not plausible. The doctor
wrote, “Does not add up.”
In May 2020, Greene’s daughter
filed a federal wrongful death suit against seven law enforcement officers that
said he was “brutalized by Louisiana State Police and Union Parish Deputy
Officers which caused his death.” The lawsuit alleged officers “used
lethal force” against him.
In September 2020, Hollingsworth
died in a single-vehicle highway crash
that happened just hours after he learned that he would be fired for his role
in Greene’s death. DeMoss was placed on administrative leave and arrested after
allegedly beating another motorist during a separate
police pursuit last year.
York was suspended for 50 hours
without pay for kicking and dragging Greene during the arrest. An internal
investigation also found that York intentionally turned off his body camera
before arriving at the scene.
None of the state troopers involved
in Greene’s death currently face criminal charges for taking his life.
Posted in 
Tags: 
