DeKalb County police say they are investigating an officer’s use of force in a June 4 arrest after video shot by a witness surfaced on social media.
The 1-minute, 39-second video shows Officer P.J. Larscheid using his baton to gain control of 38-year-old Katie McCrary, who was suspected of solicitation at a Chevron gas station on Glenwood Road, according to a police report.
DeKalb police spokeswoman Officer Shiera Campbell released a statement to the media saying the department was not aware of the video’s existence until this weekend.
The police report referencing the incident states McCrary told Larscheid she was a federal agent and gave a “random badge number” as she tried to walk past him.
After the cop warned McCrary that she could be charged with impersonating an officer, she tried to grab Larscheid’s badge, the report states.
That’s when Larscheid pulled out his baton, he wrote.
McCrary refused commands so Larscheid struck her “an unknown amount of baton strikes to her left leg,” according to the report.
At that point, McCrary dropped to the ground and began kicking the officer, the report states.
“I continued my baton strikes to her legs and forearms instructing her to stop resisting and to lay down with her hands behind her back,” Larscheid wrote. “One strike inadvertently struck the side of her head as she was moving around.”
The report states that paramedics responded to evaluate McCrary and she was served a criminal trespass citation and taken to Grady Memorial Hospital and released.
"The incident was investigated by his supervisor, as well as Internal Affairs,” Campbell said in the statement. “The narrative in the officer’s report appears to be consistent with the video.”
She said the officer was cleared following that investigation, but on Tuesday said Larscheid was put on restricted/administrative duty as a new use of force investigation had been opened.
“Now that the Department has this new evidence,” she said, “we are looking to determine whether the incident is consistent with policy and the law.”
McCrary was in jail Tuesday after being arrested Friday on a prostitution charge.
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