Who is Jacob Brown? Bodycam footage shows Louisiana trooper beating up Black man
MONROE, LOUISIANA: A Louisiana state trooper came under fire after bodycam footage of him, ruthlessly beating a Black motorist came to light with a flashlight more than two years ago. The latest footage linked to a state police division is under investigation for possible systemic abuses against Black motorists.
The footage that is seven minutes long is obtained from the officer's body-worn camera from the May 2019 incident. The video was recently turned over to attorneys for the motorist, Aaron Larry Bowman, pursuant to a court order last week. The trooper in the footage, Jacob Brown, was charged in December 2020 with aggravated second-degree battery and malfeasance in office and has not entered a plea. State prosecutors said that the case remains on hold as investigators are probing into Brown's actions.
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The Department of Justice has stated that this case is the subject of a criminal investigation being handled by the FBI, "along with career prosecutors in the United States Attorney's Office for the Western District of Louisiana and the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice." Brown resigned from the state police in March, 2021 according to a spokesman.
The body camera footage of Bowman being beaten shows officers rushing toward other officers who have him on the ground, attempting to arrest him. The body-worn camera footage shows Brown waving what appears to be a flashlight and repeatedly hitting Bowman while he's facedown on the ground with his hands behind his head for part of the beating as he tells them, "I'm not resisting. I'm not resisting." "Fighting us ain't gonna help you bud," an officer says. "I'm not fighting you," Bowman responds. Bowman can later be heard moaning and saying, "They hit me in the head with a flashlight. I'm on dialysis, man, it hurt me. It hurt me. I don't have nothing." Investigators are working to determine whether there's a history of abuse in interactions between troopers in Troop F and Black people.
According to court records, as a result of the beating, "(Bowman) sustained multiple lacerations," that include "a cut to the top of his head, a fractured arm, and broken ribs amongst other ailments." Ron Haley, one of Bowman's attorneys, has stated that Brown beat his client with an 8-inch aluminum flashlight. Brown hit him within seconds of initial contact and hit Bowman at least 18 times in 24 seconds, Haley said. An arrest affidavit says Brown went on to strike Bowman 18 times in the span of about 24 seconds. State police have said at the time of Brown's arrest "detectives learned that Brown engaged in excessive and unjustifiable actions during the incident and failed to report the use of force to his supervisors."
"Prior to (the investigation into Brown), no one knew about the body camera footage," said Keith Whiddon, one of Bowman's attorneys. "When my office learned of it, we filed our motion to ask the state to turn it over, and the judge ordered it turned over in seven days."
Louisiana State Police where Brown worked, Troop F, is under investigation for possible abuses perpetrated by troopers against Black motorists. That investigation followed the death of Ronald Greene, a Black motorist who died after he was beaten and tased following a car chase that began when Greene didn't stop for officers.