Newly released surveillance video shows a Baltimore Police officer punching a man in the face multiple times during an arrest.
The man has now filed a $35 million brutality lawsuit.
Baltimore Police said Monday the incident is being investigated by internal affairs. The Baltimore Sun reports that Vincent E. Cosom, the six-year police veteran accused in the suit, remains on active duty.
Kollin Truss, 32, was arrested June 15 following an altercation outside a liquor store. According to a police report filed by officer Cosom, an intoxicated Truss mouthed off to him and then "got into a fighting stance and clenched his fist." Cosom wrote that this made him fear for his life, so he fought the drunk man and "received a punch to the body."
Video captured by a City of Baltimore surveillance camera appears to contradict Cosom's report. The footage, which has no sound, shows Truss walking away from the liquor store accompanied by a woman. The woman, who has been identified as Truss' then-girlfriend, Stephanie Coleman, appears to pull him away from a confrontation with Cosom in front of the store.
A second angle of the incident shows Truss and Coleman walking near a bus stop. Coleman is between two officers and her boyfriend. Cosom is shown walking around Coleman, then attacking Truss, punching him seven times before the woman gets between the men again.
A white officer is shown holding one of Truss' arms. At no point in the footage is it apparent that Truss punched Cosom, as the officer claimed in his report.
Truss was arrested and charged with misdemeanors, including assault, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and intoxication. According to WJLA, the charges against Truss were dropped after authorities viewed the surveillance video.
The lawsuit claims that Central Booking and Intake Center refused to admit Truss for processing until he saw a doctor, so officers took him to Mercy Medical Center for treatment.
"This attack was completely unprovoked and served no legitimate law enforcement purpose," Truss' attorneys, Ivan J. Bates and Tony N. Garcia, wrote in a complaint filed in Baltimore Circuit Court.
On Monday, Baltimore Police released a statement saying the case is under investigation by Internal Affairs, and that they're looking to speak to people with related information or evidence.
CBS Baltimore reports that Truss' suit is more likely to drop to $5 million once it goes before a judge.
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