LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) — An Arkansas police officer was fired after he was filmed beating a handcuffed inmate in the back seat of his patrol car. The police chief said he will refer the case to prosecutors.
Jonesboro Police Chief Rick Elliott fired Officer Joseph Harris on Friday, a day after video appeared on his patrol car of Harris punching, elbowing and slamming a car door on an inmate being transferred from a local hospital back to the county jail.
Elliott reviewed the video after receiving a complaint about the incident from the county sheriff’s office. The department also posted the video on its YouTube page and announced the officer’s firing.
“I was simply shocked and appalled by (Harris’) conduct,” Elliott told the Associated Press on Monday. “Based on his conduct, I will not tolerate it and I will not tolerate it and I have immediately terminated him.”
No phone number was listed for Harris, who had worked for the department for the past five years.
In this image from Jonesboro, Arkansas Police Department video, Jonesboro Police Officer Joseph Harris, right, punches Billy Lee Coram as he sits handcuffed in the back seat of a police car, Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024, in Jonesboro, Arkansas. (Jonesboro Police Department via AP)
Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Billy Lee Coram, the inmate in the back seat of the patrol car, is wearing a hospital gown in the approximately 12-minute video and strangles himself with a seatbelt around his neck while the car is moving. After the car stops, Harris opens the door and punches and elbows Coram in the face several times while unwinding the belt.
Harris later slams the car door into Coram’s head. Elliott said he did not know what injuries Coram sustained from the blows. Coram was being held in the Craighead County Jail on Monday on escape charges and was wanted on out-of-state warrants.
Coram was taken to the hospital after he told prison staff he had taken fentanyl and escaped from the hospital. Harris caught Coram and put him in his patrol car.
The prison did not respond to messages Monday afternoon, and no court date or attorney was provided for Coram.
Elliott said he would refer the case to the local district attorney and would gather documents to send to the district attorney in the next few days. The district attorney did not immediately return a call Monday.
Elliott also said he has contacted the FBI office in Little Rock about the incident and will ask the state to revoke Harris’s police license.
“Wrong is wrong. There is actually nothing to investigate,” he said.
Harris was suspended two years ago for excessive use of force and is also a defendant in a lawsuit filed in June for the wrongful death of an inmate who died in the Craighead County Jail this year.
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