An Oakland police officer who shot an Occupy protester with a beanbag last month as the demonstrator took video of officers in riot gear has been removed from street duty along with his supervisor, pending an investigation, said sources familiar with the matter.

Police officials have released few details about the Nov. 3 incident in which Scott Campbell, 30, was hit in the leg with a nonlethal beanbag. The Oakland resident uploaded his video to YouTube, did national television appearances and sued the Police Department in federal court.

The sources said the incident was the subject of an internal affairs investigation of the officer who fired the beanbag as well as his supervisor, Capt. Ersie Joyner III. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the probe is a confidential personnel matter.

Captain's stance

The name of the officer who shot the beanbag has not been released. His supervisor, Joyner, said Tuesday, "I have the utmost confidence in the process, and I stand behind every decision I made that night, just as I have for all of my decisions in my 20-year career."

At the time, Joyner was commander of patrol operations in East Oakland. He has been reassigned to the department's Office of the Inspector General, pending the investigation.

The incident happened just before 1 a.m., as Occupy Oakland's citywide general strike devolved into acts of vandalism. Campbell said he was in Frank Ogawa Plaza outside City Hall supporting the movement and documenting it by taking photos and video.

His footage shows him walking several yards in front of a police line. A flash of light is seen as an officer fires a beanbag from a shotgun, and Campbell cries out in pain.

No officers helped

In an interview Tuesday, Campbell said he had been struck on the right thigh, opening a wound and causing severe bruising that still bothers him.

Police did not attempt to aid him, he said. Instead, a medic from Occupy Oakland gave him ice before others helped him into a taxi. He said he saw a doctor later in the day.

Despite the internal affairs probe, Campbell said no one from the Police Department had contacted him.

"I'm surprised they could investigate this incident without talking to me," he said. "I still find it outrageous that someone would feel it was appropriate to shoot someone who was posing no threat."

The Police Department's crowd-control policy says beanbags may be used against people who pose "an immediate threat of loss of life or serious bodily injury to themselves, officers or the general public."

Officers who fire beanbags must do so "under the direction of a supervisor," the policy says, and a person struck by a beanbag "shall be transported to a hospital."

Officer Johnna Watson, a department spokeswoman, said she could only confirm that internal affairs is investigating the incident.

Protesters' missiles

In a declaration to the judge hearing Campbell's lawsuit, interim Police Chief Howard Jordan did not specifically address Campbell's injury. But he said protesters had thrown bottles and concrete at officers, forcing police to use "tear gas and less-lethal munitions to defend themselves."

Joyner is one of the department's most visible officers.

In 2009, he was cleared of internal charges that he failed, as head of homicide, to properly oversee the investigation into the 2007 slaying of journalist Chauncey Bailey. The department is still reviewing an incident in May in which Joyner and a second officer shot and killed two suspects during a chaotic car stop.

Joyner has won the department's Medal of Merit six times, most recently for learning from an informant where parolee Lovelle Mixon was hiding after killing two city officers in March 2009. Mixon was found and killed in a gunbattle that claimed the lives of two more officers.