Five Miami Beach officers are in legal trouble after surveillance footage from a hotel lobby caught them beating and assaulting a Black man and a witness recording the July 26 violent arrest.
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said that the involved officers had since been suspended and charged with first-degree misdemeanor battery.
“Excessive force can never, ever, ever, be an acceptable foundation for policing in any community,” she said. “Officers who forget that fact do a grave disservice to the people they have sworn to serve.”
The footage showed the officers repeatedly kicking the handcuffed detainee, identified as Dalonta Crudup, to the head even as he complied with their orders.
“With my team, when we saw that kick to the head, and then we replayed it and saw all the kicks that preceded it – it was unspeakable. It was just inexcusable.”
The officers also assaulted a Black man who stood 12 to 15 feet away filming their acts against Crudup.
“They beat him, turned around, charged me down, beat me…punched me, elbowed me in the face,” the assaulted witness said. “I literally got jumped by officers.”
