COLORADO SPRINGS — Tuesday night, News 5 received cell phone video from an individual who attended recent protests in Colorado Springs.
What you see in the video is the arrest of a man standing in the street with his arms up. The individual who shot the video said she saw the violent take down happen after midnight, early Monday morning.
In the video you can see multiple officers take the man to the ground, cuff him, and then hit him multiple times while he is on the ground.
The woman who shot the video told News 5 that she an another witness were outraged over what they were seeing.
News 5 reached out to the Colorado Springs Police Department Tuesday night but they didn't provide a comment.
CSPD Chief Vince Niski did however release a statement about an unspecified online video. The full statement can be found below:
“I am aware of the video circulating around social media of our officers using force to effect an arrest during the recent protest. This incident will be reviewed to determine if any laws or department policies were broken.
Preliminary, the video appears to show officers attempting to take a suspect into custody after protestors were given a lawful order to disperse. The suspect seems to be resisting, which is when officers use force to gain compliance and take him into custody.
This video shows a small snapshot of that arrest. The full review will reveal all the events that occurred leading up to this incident, during this incident, and what happened after the video stops. Once that is complete, if the officers have been found to have violated our policies or the law, the appropriate action will be taken.
While protests in Colorado Springs have been overwhelmingly peaceful, we have seen violent and unlawful acts take place, especially during the night. We stand in solidarity with our community and we will continue to protect our community’s right to protest, but when a crime occurs we have to take action to ensure an escalation of violence does not continue.”
News 5 cannot say for certain at the time of this writing that these are the same videos. This story will be updated when we learn more.
