Fault found in officer’s stomp on cuffed man
A Columbus deputy chief has found the actions of an officer shown on video stomping once on a restrained man as unreasonable, according to a statement releasedWednesday afternoon.
Witnesses to the April 8 incident posted a video on YouTube of Demarko Anderson, 26, lying on his chest on a concrete
driveway. Anderson appears to be restrained by Officer Darren Stephens with his hands behind his back when Officer Zachary Rosen darts in and strikes him once in the head with his left foot.
“Are you serious? I’ve got cuffs on, sir,” Anderson can be heard saying.
Officers were responding to a report of a man with a gun near a residence in Linden. Stephens watched Anderson walking away from a Maize Road residence and tried to handcuff him, according to a police report. Anderson pulled away, then elbowed Stephens in the face and ran south. Stephens was able to catch Anderson and handcuff him.
Rosen, 32, a Columbus Division of Police officer since December 2010, told investigators that he was fearful Anderson still had a gun, so he ran at full speed and stomped once on Anderson’s left shoulder.
“If the fear of a weapon and threat of death were real, it makes no sense that Officer Rosen stood around after the apprehension and did not search Mr. Anderson for weapons,” Deputy Chief Thomas Quinlan wrote in a report.
Quinlan overruled other supervisors in the chain of command with his decision, which recommended Rosen be disciplined, including requiring additional training in searches of an armed suspect. All four lower-ranking supervisors ruled Rosen’s use of force was within policy.
“It’s kind of like spiking the football at halftime,” Jason Pappas, president of Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge No. 9, said of the statement issued by Columbus Division of Police.
The case still could go on to a hearing before Columbus Police Chief Kim Jacobs. If she upholds Quinlan’s decision, Rosen has the option to appeal to the public safety director.
“There’s this deviation,” Pappas said. “I think (the other supervisors) look at it the same way I look at it. This is a life-and-death situation.”
The video shot by witnesses showed handcuffs were already on Anderson when he was stomped on. Rosen told investigators Anderson was not secured in handcuffs.
“The video shows the silver cuff locking around the wrist and the ratchet sound is clearly heard on the video,” Quinlan said.
While Rosen had the right to use force, it’s the type of untrained force that was used that’s unreasonable, he said.
“Stomps and strikes/ kicks to the face are not trained,” Quinlan said. “Stomps and strikes/ kicks are trained to be applied to a shin, or to the hips of an attacker, and not trained to the face of a man lying on the ground with an officer on top applying handcuffs.”
The 129-page investigative report has been forwarded to the Police Division’s discipline grievance section for a review. The division will use precedent in other cases to determine what, if any, disciplinary action should be taken in Rosen’s case.
Other cases in which discipline was issued dating to 2012 show a range of punishments, from a written reprimand to a 160-hour suspension, according to Quinlan’s report.
Mayor Andrew J. Ginther and several city council members last month denounced the actions of the officer.
“(Rosen’s) actions are also inconsistent with our community’s expectations and values we share,” Ginther said in a statement Wednesday. “I expect an equally timely recommendation for discipline that holds Officer Rosen accountable for his actions.”
Sean Walton, an attorney with Walton + Brown, a Downtown law firm representing Anderson, said Rosen should be fired. Anderson was indicted on charges from the April 18 incident, including improperly discharging a gun into a residence as a repeat violent offender, having weapons under disability, carrying concealed weapons, obstructing official business and aggravated menacing.
Walton is also representing the family of 23-year-old Henry Green, who was shot and killed by Rosen and another officer while they were working undercover in June 2016. Rosen fired 15 shots in that incident. The officers were not indicted by a grand jury. The city’s Firearms Review Board is still examining that shooting.
“Either he will be an example of what a Columbus Division of Police officer represents or what a Columbus Division of Police officer’s conduct should not embody,” Walton said in a statement. “Anything less than termination is a slap in the face to Columbus citizens who trust Mayor Ginther and Chief Jacobs.”
Nana Watson, president of the NAACP Columbus chapter, called for Rosen’s termination within days of the incident.
“We still stand by our position,” she said Wednesday. “It’s our hope the chief will rule on that expeditiously.”