Ten San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies were placed on paid administrative leave on Friday after a television news camera caught them beating a suspect who had been fleeing on horseback.
Speaking to reporters, Sheriff John McMahon of San Bernardino County said the deputies used force against the suspect, Francis Pusok, on Thursday after a high-speed car chase and later a foot pursuit over several kilometers of “steep, rocky, rugged terrain” as he fled on a horse.
McMahon said that an investigation into the deputies’ use of force was continuing, but that after watching the video he believed it to be “excessive.”
Photo: EPA
“I assure you that I am disturbed by this video,” he said. “I assure you, if there is criminal wrongdoing on the part of any of our deputy sheriffs or any policy violations, we will take action.”
Pusok was treated at a hospital for abrasions and bruises and then transported to West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, California, where he was booked for felony evading, theft of a horse, possession of stolen property and reckless driving, McMahon said.
Two deputies involved in the incident were treated for abrasions, a twisted knee and a back injury suffered after being struck by the horse and several more were dehydrated after the foot pursuit, he said.
The FBI said it was opening a parallel inquiry into whether Pusok’s civil rights were violated during what it called the “altercation” at the end of the chase.
It said those results would be sent to the US attorney’s office for the central district of California and the US Department of Justice in Washington to determine if further investigation or prosecution was warranted.
McMahon said two deputies arrived at a home in the unincorporated town of Apple Valley, California, on Thursday to follow up on an identity theft investigation when they unexpectedly encountered Pusok, who got in a car and fled when he saw them. The car later became damaged and Pusok stole a horse to continue his flight from the deputies, who pursued him on foot.
McMahon said his office believed that Pusok, who was on probation after an earlier prison stint, fled the officers because he thought they were part of “a probation sweep” and did not want to be sent back to jail.
The deputies who initially encountered Pusok “were very familiar with this suspect and very familiar with his criminal history,” McMahon said.
“He made threats to kill a deputy sheriff and in fact shot a puppy in front of part of his family” during a previous encounter with law enforcement, McMahon said.
Pusok’s mother, Anne Clemson, told the Los Angeles Times that the deputies’ violent treatment of her son “was not called for” and demanded that the deputies be fired.
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