CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — The Clayton County Sheriff’s Office is now investigating an incident involving its own deputy after a video on social media showed deputies pinning a man to the ground and one of them punching him several times.
On Saturday, the man who recorded the video told us about what he saw during the incident one day earlier.
Jarvis Davis said he was waiting for his uncle outside of a doctor’s office on Friday afternoon when he heard a woman screaming. He looked out toward the street and that’s when he saw what was going on - and started recording.
“It feels like Ahmaud Arbery, Rayshard Brooks,” Davis said.
Looking back at the video that Davis said he recorded Friday afternoon, he got emotional.
“I’m a Black man, too. It can happen to anybody I know,” he said. “It can happen to me. It can happen to anybody.”
Davis’s video showed two Clayton County sheriff’s deputies on top of a man while a woman was screaming. At one point, one of the deputies is seen punching the man on the ground several times. Then, Davis said he heard the man yelling a phrase that’s become all too familiar.
“He’s yelling ‘I can’t breathe!’ and stuff like that,” he said.
The Clayton County Sheriff’s Office released a statement early Saturday morning, reading:
“After being made aware of a video posted on social media involving a deputy using physical force on a man, Sheriff Victor Hill ordered his entire internal affairs unit to come in and begin an investigation that has been ongoing since 8 p.m. The sheriff has ordered that the deputy involved be placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.”
Investigators haven’t said what led to the incident, but Davis said witnesses out at the scene told him it was a traffic stop due to a broken taillight and the man on the ground was a passenger.
“He’s already being detained so why are you hitting him?” Davis said.
He said it still upsets him.
There were rumors circulating online that the car the man was in was a Lyft ride; however, Lyft tweeted on Saturday that they investigated the incident and this was not the case.