A Minneapolis police officer has been charged with kicking a compliant suspect in the face, causing brain injury, the Hennepin County attorney’s office announced Wednesday.

Officer Christopher Reiter, 36, was charged with third-degree assault, County Attorney Mike Freeman said. He has been fired from the Minneapolis Police Department, according to KSTP.

Freeman said the charges stemmed from a May 30 incident.

According to the criminal complaint:

Police were sent to a Minneapolis apartment building on a domestic assault call. Officers identified a victim, who said that she had been assaulted by Mohamed Osman. Officers found the man sitting in a vehicle parked outside the building.

Several officers ordered Osman to get out of the vehicle and to get on the ground. Osman complied, but while he was on his hands and knees, Reiter quickly walked up to him and kicked him in the face.

Osman collapsed, bleeding and unconscious. He was taken to a hospital and diagnosed with a displaced nasal bone, nasal septal fractures and mild traumatic brain injury.

St. Paul police were called in to investigate the incident in order to avoid a conflict of interest.

Three other Minneapolis police officers who witnessed Reiter’s actions and surveillance video confirmed what had happened. Suspicions were first raised when a police sergeant arrived on the scene and observed Osman’s injuries.

“We all know that Minneapolis police, and all police, face difficult jobs,” Freeman told reporters at a Wednesday news conference. “In this case, kicking the victim in the face is deadly force and deadly force was not justified.”

The assault charges could be upgraded if Osman’s brain injury continues to affect him, Freeman said. Related Articles St. Paul man threatened another man with a sword, charges say

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KSTP-TV reported that an attorney for Reiter, Robert Fowler, said in a statement Wednesday night: “I believe that under the law, this officer’s use of force was legally justified in this case and we dispute the claims.”

KSTP also reported that Reiter has been the subject of two recent federal civil rights cases alleging excessive force.

Osman was also the subject of a domestic abuse investigation related to the May 30 assault report to police.

The Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis said a statement Wednesday that it supports Reiter and will assure that he is afforded his rights.

“Unfortunately, no officer has the benefit of instant replay or slow motion when deciding how to respond to a rapidly changing situation,” union president Lt. Bob Kroll said in the statement. “An officer’s actions are derived from on scene assessments, not hindsight.”

“Images and videos that often look horrific must be reviewed in the context of the overall incident beyond the point of view of one camera angle,” the statement goes on to say. “Officer Reiter deserves the same presumption of innocence every citizen is afforded in our justice system.”