Baltimore officer quits, may face assault charge

He had history with man he’s seen hitting in video

BALTIMORE — A Baltimore police officer recorded while repeatedly punching a man in a street confrontation has resigned, and investigators are looking at charging him with second-degree assault, Interim Police Commissioner Gary Tuggle said Monday.

Tuggle said at a news conference that the officer’s use of “repeated head strikes” and attempts to take the man to the ground were “disturbing” and unacceptable.

“We’re trained to act in a nonemotional way,” Tuggle said, adding that if an officer crosses the line, a peer or a supervisor needs to intervene.

The video recorded Saturday begins with the officer standing in front of a man who has his back to a wall. The officer can be seen shoving the man in the chest before the officer starts throwing punches. The man tries to block the punches but doesn’t appear to fight back. The man is pushed over some steps by the officer, who continues to throw punches, and the video ends with the officer on top of him.

Body camera video from the two officers on the scene is consistent with video circulating online, Tuggle said.

Attorney Warren Brown said his client, 26-year-old Dashawn Mcgrier, was the man being punched. McGrier was hospitalized Saturday and wasn’t charged, he said. Brown said Mcgrier suffered a fractured jaw and fractured ribs, as well as ringing in his ear and swelling on his face.

Brown also said it was fortunate his client didn’t suffer greater injury and noted the unrest in the city after the death of Freddie Gray, who was fatally injured while in the custody of officers in 2015.

A second officer who was present Saturday has been assigned to administrative duties during the investigation. Tuggle said the second officer had a duty to contain the situation and keep himself safe.

Tuggle didn’t name the officer seen punching in the video, but Brown identified him as Arthur Williams. Mcgrier is fighting charges for allegedly assaulting Williams in June.

Williams’ statement of probable cause from the June 26 arrest says he noticed a woman with a cigar with possible marijuana. As he got closer, he wrote, he smelled marijuana and attempted to stop her, but Mcgrier grabbed the suspected marijuana and fled.

Williams wrote that he pointed his Taser at Mcgrier’s torso because he was attempting to hit him. He put him in handcuffs, and Mcgrier “stated several times that he would kill this officer once he was released from prison,” he wrote.

Brown said Williams and Mcgrier had a history even before the June incident. In the spring, he said, McGrier had suggested to some youths that they talk to their parents about how Williams had treated them.

“And from that point on, he directed his ire toward my client,” Brown said.