White Alabama cop seen punching black store owner who called 911 to report robbery so hard it broke his jaw
DECATUR, ALABAMA: An armed black store owner who had called the police to report a robbery was mistaken for the suspect and punched by an officer who responded to the scene, surveillance and bodycam footage showed.
The incident unfolded close to three months ago on March 15 but recently caught the attention of social media after footage from the store became viral.
You can watch the outrageous video here.
The video shows a police officer walk into Star Spirits & Beverages, a liquor store on Sixth Avenue in Decatur, North Alabama, and almost immediately punch 47-year-old Kevin Penn, its African-American owner.
The punch resulted in Penn suffering a broken jaw, as well as having some of his teeth knocked out. His lawyer, Carl Cole, told AL.com that his client had to undergo several weeks of treatment, including having his mouth wired shut.
Furthermore, after the altercation, he was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of obstructing governmental operations. Police accused him of obstructing their investigation of the robbery, which they later said was just a case of shoplifting.
In court filings, Decatur Police officer J Rippen claimed that Penn "refused to obey lawful commands to put down and back away from a firearm while officers were attempting to investigate a robbery."
Police also released bodycam footage at a press conference on Monday, June 8, where an officer could be heard telling Penn to put down his gun and the 47-year-old refusing to comply. Penn then moves his hand over a gun lying on the counter next to him.
He was holding a magazine in his other hand, which police said they believed was a gun. When he did not put it down, an officer walked in and punched him in the face.
Cole, however, said Penn had called the police after solving the case, and that his client was armed and holding the suspect for the police. In surveillance video that made the rounds on social media, Penn could be seen carrying the gun and motioning toward the officers as they entered the store. He said Penn showed the gun to officers to make sure they knew he was armed, then took out the clip and ejected the bullet from the chamber.
Cole said Penn had filed an internal affairs complaint with the police department and handed over the surveillance video from his store, but that the city had not responded to his request for information about the status of the investigation.
Speaking at the press conference, Decatur Police Chief Nate Allen said many cases involving an armed suspect end with police shooting the person and that officers should use the "least amount of force necessary to get the job done."
"I would much rather have a punch than an officer-involved shooting," he said, adding that because police were called to investigate a robbery and Penn was armed, they believed he might have been the suspect.
Allen also said they had released a portion of the bodycam footage so the police department could be transparent with the public. "We wanted to show that because one thing I strive to do is build relationships with this community," he explained. "We need to be very transparent; we need to be very open. But most of all, we need our citizens to respect the police department and we need the police department to respect the citizens."
While he refused to name the officer involved in the incident, he said he is currently on desk duty pending an internal investigation.