Bodycam video shows moments before police takedown in West End traffic stop

A man who says Louisville Metro Police abused him during a controversial traffic stop in 2018 lunged at an officer before being taken to the ground, police body camera footage shows.

Cellphone video originally shared on social media showed Jarrus Ransom being pulled down and punched five times by Officer Cory Evans. That video, recorded by a bystander, was shot from far away and was grainy.

The body cam video of the Dec. 10, 2018, arrest was obtained by The Courier Journal in a Jan. 2 open records request following the police department's exoneration of Evans.

In a letter to Evans in early December 2019, Chief Steve Conrad exonerated him of the charges of being discourteous and using excessive force. He will face no disciplinary action, Conrad said.

Evans still faces a lawsuit, as do the police department and fellow Officers Kyle Carroll and Sarah Nicolas.

Ransom, who wore a neck brace in his jail booking photo after his arrest, alleges in the lawsuit that it was a "vicious assault."

Background: Man slammed to ground by police booked in jail wearing neck brace

Ransom was pulled over at 27th and Broadway because his windows were tinted, according to the arrest citation from the time.

Once he was pulled over, officers asked for permission to search his vehicle. After Ransom refused several times and officers called for a K-9 to come to the scene, he consented so he could go home, the body camera footage shows.

When officers searched the vehicle, they found a Pepsi can. When they poured the liquid out, several pills fell on the pavement. It was then that body camera footage shows Ransom lunging toward Evans.

The arrest citation said Ransom rammed an officer with his shoulder.

Then, Evans, Carroll and Nicolas took Ransom to the ground. There, Evans hit Ransom in the back five times with a closed fist and told him to put his hands behind his back. Nicolas later said she also struck Ransom once, though that is not clear from her camera footage.

"Listen man, I'm gonna hammer fist your face. I'm gonna hammer fist your f------ face," Evans said to Ransom while he lay on the ground.

Earlier: Man sues Louisville police for alleged 'vicious assault' during traffic stop

The body camera footage has some sound and visual redactions throughout, so parts of the conversation between the officers and Ransom may be missing.

Ransom asked if he was "bleeding bad." Onlookers yelled that he was and told him, "Don't fight. Be still. Don't give them a reason." Ransom said, "They f----- me up."

He told officers he couldn't breathe while the three of them were on the ground with him. He also lost a shoe and his hat in the scuffle and his pants were down to his knees at one point.

Evans told the onlookers, "We didn't do nothing to him. He's doing it to himself."

After Ransom got to his feet, he asked to look at his reflection in his car window. When he saw his bleeding eye, he yelled, "Look at my face" several times and "They beat my a--."

Evans contended to Ransom and the other officers that Ransom had tried to eat the pills the police found in his soda can and had successfully consumed one while on the ground.

Police recovered two pills during the stop.

Ransom was charged with possession, excessive window tinting, resisting arrest, failure to wear a seat belt and tampering with physical evidence.

Those charges were later dropped or otherwise disposed of outside court.

LMPD chief: Louisville officer exonerated for punching driver during a traffic stop

Reach breaking news reporter Sarah Ladd at sladd@courier-journal.com. Follow her on Twitter at @ladd_sarah. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/subscribe.