Baltimore police officer suspended after video shows him repeatedly punching man

Ryan W. Miller | USA TODAY

A Baltimore police officer has been suspended after a viral video showed him repeatedly punching and tackling to the ground a man who did not return the blows, authorities say.

Interim Police Commissioner Gary Tuggle said Saturday police were investigating the incident in the video and that it "deeply disturbed" him. The investigation will include a review of body camera footage, Tuggle added in his statement.

The incident occurred Saturday, Baltimore Police Detective Jeremy Silbert confirmed to USA TODAY. It was not immediately clear what prompted an initial police response to the scene.

The video, shared online by journalists, activists and community members, shows a Baltimore police officer speaking to a man on a sidewalk. Another office is standing in front of the two men, talking to others on the sidewalk.

The man, responding to the officer, shouts, "For what?" The officer standing in front of them blocks the view of the camera, but the man then shouts, "Don't touch me," before the officer begins punching.

The officer hits the man with an onslaught of blows as he wrestles him onto the top of a house's front steps. He punches the man's head multiple times as he lays on the steps, eventually holding him down to the ground.

The man, who doesn't return a punch to the officer in the video, appears to bleed from his mouth as the officer holds a forearm to his face while grabbing his arm.

Throughout the video, the second officer does not stop the officer throwing the punches.

Baltimore civil rights activist DeRay Mckesson shared the graphic video on Twitter, calling for a response from the city's mayor, Catherine Pugh.

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? pic.twitter.com/yABsCZDEmq — deray (@deray) August 11, 2018

In a statement, Pugh said she has seen the video and "demanded answers and accountability."

"We are 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," Pugh said in the statement.

USA TODAY Investigation: Baltimore police stopped noticing crime after Freddie Gray's death. A wave of killings followed.

In January 2017, Baltimore and the U.S. Justice Department agreed to enter a consent decree deal that aimed to institute reforms to the city's beleaguered police department. The agreement arose out of a federal report that found widespread racial discrimination against black residents in the department's policing.

The report and agreement came two years after riots broke out in the city in response to the death of Freddie Gray, who died after he was shackled and loaded into a police van. None of the six officers charged in Gray's death were convicted, with three acquitted and three others having the charges against them dropped.

Follow Ryan Miller on Twitter: @RyanW_Miller