A California woman was in shock after she witnessed an unarmed Black man being hit repeatedly with a baton by an officer.
Melissa Navarrete said she was sitting with a friend at a restaurant on Friday, and they witnessed an officer beating an unarmed Black man with a baton in Barstow, California. She felt something was wrong and pulled out her cellphone to record the incident.
“We’d see in the middle of the street a cop with a baton holding it like a bat swinging at this guy. The guy had his hands up, and he’s moving backward like he’s not trying to fight the cop. He’s not trying to resist anything… he’s just moving and the cop is just swinging and swinging,” Navarrete told Fox 11 News.
Related: ‘They Messed Me Up Real Good’: Black Man Suffers Broken Nose, Jaw and Cheekbones After Indiana Police Stop; Cops Claim He Fell and Hit His Face
The unarmed Black man would be later identified as 43-year-old Gary Christian.
The video shows the officer swinging the baton toward Christian as he is backing away. The officer then strikes Christian, and he stumbles to the ground. The officer hits Christian more as he lay on the ground with his hands up, and two more officers appear in the video. They all surround Christian and eventually placed him under arrest.
As Navarrete recorded, she was overheard in the background saying things like “Just get down! Oh my God! Oh My God!” as she pleaded for the officers to stop hitting him with the baton.
Barstow Police Department said in a statement on Facebook that they were aware a resident recorded the incident and they would conduct their own…
Read the full article here
