Salinas >> One of the five Salinas police officers shown on video making a violent arrest last week has been removed from patrol duties as an internal investigation into the use of force continues.

“One of the officers — the fifth officer — seems to be causing the most commotion,” Salinas Police Chief Kelly McMillin said Thursday during a news conference at Salinas police headquarters. “He has been restricted to working at the station.”

The officer was not named. He was identified in a video of Friday’s violent arrest as the last officer to arrive on scene. He delivered five baton strikes on 28-year-old Jose Velasco, while four officers restrained Velasco on the ground. McMillin said batons were used after commands, hand-to-hand force and Taser use had no effect on Velasco.

The arrest left Velasco with a broken leg, bruised arms and legs, and a couple of stitches to the head. Two of the officers involved in the arrest were also injured.

With the community on edge after watching the incident after a local man posted the video to YouTube, McMillin has requested the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office investigate each officer to see if they their actions constituted a criminal action.

McMillin said he has “faith” in the department doing its own investigation, but is requesting the DA do it in the “interest of public trust.”

The raw audio of more than a dozen witnesses calling 911 to report Velasco’s alleged attack on his mother have also been released. The audio outlines the events that occurred before the video, which has garnered more than 200,000 views on YouTube, began recording.

The callers, expressing concern, reported Velasco acting erratically, beating and dragging his mother into traffic on North Main Street. From the 15 callers — including Velasco’s mother, Rita Acosta — three say they witnessed Velasco beating his mother.

Acosta maintains she was calling police for help, adding that her son was having a schizophrenic episode. McMillin, who read Velasco’s medical file, said Velasco suffers from a “specified drug-induced psychotic disorder.”

The disorder mimics the symptoms of mental illness as a result of substance abuse, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, McMillin said. Velasco was under the influence of methamphetamine the day of his arrest, McMillin said.

When Acosta called 911 she said there was “something wrong with him and he’s running through the cars” on the street. Less than a minute later, most of the call is unintelligible and filled mostly with screaming. Acosta is heard repeatedly screaming “stop it” before police arrived.

The first two officers to respond to the scene told McMillin they arrived to find Velasco on top of his mother with his hands “on her neck going up and down.” Acosta maintains her son was “holding her” not attacking her.

One witness can be heard on a recording saying, “Uh they’re hugging right now actually … oh my gosh, no, he threw her down.”

When officers arrived, they can be heard ordering Velasco to get on his stomach several times and to get off his mother.

Velasco continued screaming. It remains unclear if he assaulted officers or if he tried to grab an officer’s stun gun during that time, as police reported.

“Get on your stomach, or you’ll get hit,” one of the officers is heard saying. Then the sound of sirens take over the background of the call and it ends. What follows can be seen on the nearly two-minute video: Velasco is hit with a baton 20 times and shocked with a Taser three times. But McMillin emphasized the lowest level of force — vocal warning and hand-to-hand force — had already been used.

Once officers apprehended him, Velasco’s head was bleeding.

McMillin noted that in April police had an interaction with Velasco where he was acting erratically, asking for help because he thought someone was out to kill him. McMillin said officers asked for an ambulance and helped him, adding that the June 5 incident was different.

“When officers respond to violent incidents they have to respond to the violence itself to keep the public safe,” he said, adding that the department’s policy is to “use the amount of force necessary to overcome resistance and make an arrest.”

When asked what his thoughts were about the use of force used during the recorded incident, McMillin said, “I have not made a determination yet.”

Ana Ceballos can be reached at 726-4377.