DeKalb County police have placed a 2014 Officer of the Year on “administrative/restricted duty” while they reopen an investigation of a videotaped incident in June in which the officer repeatedly struck a homeless woman with his metal baton.
Officer P.J. Larscheid, who wielded the baton, is white. Katie McCrary, who allegedly set off the confrontation by grabbing Larscheid’s badge, is black. The video, taken by a customer at the convenience store on Glenwood Road in Decatur, shows McCrary resisting Larscheid’s efforts to subdue her, and it shows Larscheid repeatedly beating her with his baton until she submits to being handcuffed.
“It is just disgusting to watch her get beaten like that,” Francys Johnson, president of the Georgia NAACP, told the AJC Tuesday. “If she were an animal … if she were a dog, the officer would have already lost his job.”
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Late Tuesday evening, DeKalb police announced that they were reopening their investigation of the episode. “The investigation will cover all aspects of the use of force incident as well as the original investigation conducted by the officer’s immediate supervisors,” the statement said.
“Officer Larscheid has been placed on restricted/administrative duty, pending the outcome of the investigation.”
That initial investigation cleared Larscheid.
The confrontation occurred on a Sunday afternoon in early June. The video, however, did not surface until this past weekend, when it went viral on YouTube. DeKalb police said they were reopening their inquiry in light of the video, which they described as new evidence.
The incident is the latest in a long line of recorded episodes of violence and police brutality against mostly African-Americans — incidents that have been meticulously chronicled on social media and by groups like Black Lives Matter.
On some social media platforms, people likened the beating to that of an overseer striking a slave. Others said Larscheid acted appropriately, given the circumstances.
In 2015, according to a posting and photograph on the DeKalb County Police Department’s south precinct Facebook Page, Larscheid was named the 2014 Officer of the Year and recognized by the North Decatur Lions Club.
Now, black neighborhood groups in DeKalb are calling for his firing and are threatening to launch a petition to see it through.
In the 1-minute, 39-second video, Larscheid strikes McCrary at least 12 times in the legs, body, face and head, before pinning her head to the floor with the baton.
With her head on the floor and Larscheid’s knee lodged against her back, McCrary reaches around her head and drapes her left arm around the baton.
Larscheid then says three times: “Let it go, or I’m gonna shoot you.”
He then gives McCrary a final blow before managing to get the handcuffs on her.
“It takes a cold and callous act by a person to beat a human being like this,” said Henry M. Carter, a DeKalb-based professional and personal development consultant. “The officer clearly didn’t value this woman as a human being.”
In his incident report, Larscheid says he was called to the Chevron store at about 3 p.m. on June 4 because a woman was soliciting customers for money inside the convenience store. He says he stopped the woman at the door of the store and told her to step back.
“She stated she was a federal agent and stated a random badge number which I do not recall,” Larscheid wrote. “When I told her she could be arrested for impersonating an officer, she told me that I was impersonating an officer and then reached out and grabbed my badge.
“I attempted to push the female back and told her not to touch me and she grabbed my vest and radio… . I then deployed my ASP baton and instructed her to lay down on the ground. The suspect refused my commands and I then delivered an unknown amount of baton strikes to her left leg. The female then dropped to the ground and began kicking me. I continued my baton strikes to her legs and forearms, instructing her to stop resisting.”
A customer began recording the incident with her phone after the officer started using his baton. The video records others in the store urging McCrary to stop resisting and follow the officer’s instructions.
After the incident McCrary was arrested and charged with obstructing or hindering law enforcement officers. She was also served a criminal trespass warning.
Larscheid said in his report said he saw a half-inch cut on McCrary’s left shin and a welt on her left arm. An EMS crew at the scene checked McCrary’s injuries, Larscheid said. He then took her to the DeKalb County Jail where, in his words, “she was refused and deferred to Grady Memorial Hospital for further evaluation. I then transported the female suspect to Grady Memorial Hospital where she was evaluated and later released.”
McCrary was released from jail on June 6 on a $5,000 bond.
“Unfortunately, this is all too common,” the NAACP’s Johnson said. “We … trust that DeKalb County will do a thorough investigation this time and that justice will be served.”
McCrary, 38, is back in jail. She was arrested on July 7 on a prostitution charge. Since 2014, she has been arrested at least seven times in DeKalb County, mostly on drug and prostitution charges, according to records.
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