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MEAWW.COM / NEWS / CRIME & JUSTICE

Woman who filmed 3 cops brutally beating Arkansas man says he did NOT provoke attack 'at any time'

The witness said she watched cops and suspect Randall Worcester talk 'calmly' as he sat on the curb unaware of what was about to happen
UPDATED AUG 27, 2022
Randall Worcester, the man whose violent arrest by three Arkansas officers was caught on tape, is seen along with his lawyer (5 News/screenshot)
Randall Worcester, the man whose violent arrest by three Arkansas officers was caught on tape, is seen along with his lawyer (5 News/screenshot)

MULBERRY, ARKANSAS: A woman who filmed three Arkansas police officers brutally beating a 27-year-old man and subsequently arresting him rejects law enforcement claims that the victim Randall Worcester sparked the violence. The bystander who filmed the video says Worcester, did not provoke the attack, while officers say he body-slammed a deputy and punched him in the back of the head, leading to his arrest and sending him to Crawford County Jail. The video, which has since gone viral on the Internet, has led to the three officers being suspended for brutally beating the man after restraining him.

In an interview, Naomi Johnson, the sister of the woman who filmed the video, reveals her sibling told FBI investigators that 'at no point' did she see Worcester attack any officer before the violent arrest. Arkansas State Police and the FBI have launched an investigation after three local law enforcement officers, one of the officers repeatedly punches the man in the head and bashes his head against the sidewalk, another repeatedly knees him in the back and both are dressed in the uniform of the Crawford County Sheriff's office. While the third officer restrains the man on the ground. When the woman approached the police to stop beating him, one of the cops said, "Back the fuck off!" State police said the man had been accused of making threats in a shop on the morning of August, 21. Police said that when officers confronted the suspect, Randall Worcester, pushed a deputy to the ground and punched the back of his head, leading to the arrest. Worcester, who was taken to hospital, faces terroristic threatening, resisting arrest, criminal trespass, criminal mischief and assault charges, police said. 

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Lawyers for officer Russell Wood say, "Worcester 'viciously attacked' a deputy by 'lifting him up and body-slamming him, head first, on the concrete parking lot." "White was incapacitated momentarily but remembers getting repeatedly hit in the head and then seeing the suspect fighting with Corporal King and the Mulberry officer. Deputy White reengaged and used all force necessary to get the violent suspect under control and detained," he added. The woman who filmed the incident has told FBI investigators that 'at no point' did she see Randal Worcester attack any officer. While the woman does not wish to be identified, her sister, Naomi Johnson, tells DailyMail that her sibling's account directly contradicts a police report alleging Worcester, 27, pushed a deputy to the ground and punched his head before being savagely beaten by all three officers. The woman filmed the video with a friend as the pair sat in their car at the Kountry Xpress gas station and store on Sunday. 

Johnson said "My sister and her girlfriend were there before the beating even started. They saw the officers calmly talking to the man, who was just sitting on the curb. She started the video once they started beating him." Johnson, who put the video on social media within hours of the outrage, continued, "At no point did she see him attack an officer. We are glad Randal Worcester is safe. My sister said the officers can't hide behind their lies and that's ultimately why we put the video out there." She moved to Mulberry, to the northwest of Arkansas state capitol Little Rock, four months ago and lives just a three-minute drive from the scene of the outrage. Johnson, 34, and her sister are not biased against law enforcement as they have two brothers who are federal officers and a first cousin in the police.

Johnson, who lives in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, "I was the first person my sister talked to after witnessing the attack. She was shocked and horrified." She said to me, ''I've always been nice to police officers. They're in our family.'' "She said when that happened, her girlfriend told her to get in the car and they needed to go. Because they were afraid, my sister said she was afraid the officers were going to come after her, like the way they did Randal." "So she got back into the car and they drove straight home. They were scared." She said to me, "Oh God we took that video, are they going to follow us home?" "My sister does not want her name revealed. She's told me, don't give it out because I live here. She's still feeling scared."

Crawford County Sheriff Jimmy Damante said his office is "co-operating with all aspects" of the probe launched by the Arkansas State Police and the FBI. "The conduct that appears in the video that is circulating is not indicative of the Crawford County Sheriff's Department or any law enforcement agency in this area," Mr Damante said. "We condemn all violence against any civilian or any person being detained by the sheriff's office," he continued. In a statement released Sunday evening, Mulberry Police Chief Shannon Gregory said: "The city of Mulberry and the Mulberry police department takes these investigations very seriously." Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson said on Sunday night on Twitter that the "incident in Crawford County will be investigated pursuant to the video evidence and the request of the prosecuting attorney".



 

Johnson added that her sibling will not talk directly to any media after being advised by the FBI that "interviews would mean her witness statement could not be used in court."
The sister was also surprised other people who may have seen the beating did nothing to intervene." She couldn't believe that nobody else who saw it was going to do anything about it. She said there were some other people around," said Johnson. "She was saying, I don't know if they were ignoring it or didn't know what was going on." He was released on $15,000 bond from Crawford County jail on August, 22, accompanied by his attorney Carrie Jernigan. Worcester's stepfather Eric Wedding has said he hopes the three cops 'burn' as he plans to lodge a lawsuit over the ordeal. A Justice Department spokesperson said, "the US Attorney's Office for the Western District of Arkansas, the FBI's Little Rock Field Office, and the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division opened a civil rights investigation into the incident."

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.

 

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