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Sacto Cop Caught On Video Beating Alleged Jaywalker Placed On Leave

SACRAMENTO (CBS SF) -- A Sacramento police officer has been placed on administrative leave after throwing a pedestrian to the ground and striking him in the face multiple times in an incident captured on video.

In a press release, the department said, "the videos of this incident portray actions and behavior that we would consider unacceptable conduct by a Sacramento Police Officer. As a result, the Department's Internal Affairs Division is investigating the event."

The incident happened at 5:07 p.m. Monday, in the Del Paso Heights neighborhood, near the intersection of Cypress Street and Grand Avenue.

WATCH THE CELLPHONE VIDEO:

In the video, posted by Naomi Montaie, the officer and the man are standing in the middle of a residential street exchanging words, but what they are saying is inaudible.

The woman shooting the video from her car yells, "Nephew just listen," about 3 seconds before the officer steps forward and pushes the man to the ground. The woman then yells, "Hey, hey... why are you beating like that?" and moves forward in her car, continuing to capture cellphone video showing the officer on top of the man, punching him repeatedly.

Another officer arrives, climbs on top of the man and handcuffs him.

"Why'd you take him down like that, sir? He just got off work," yells the woman from her car as more backup arrives. In the end, there are seven officers surrounding the man who lies, handcuffed in the street. Eventually, they put the man in the back of a police car.

"He was bleeding at the mouth... that one cop, took him down and just started, bam, bam, bam," says the woman.

Then the video ends.

According to police, the officer attempted to stop the man "who was observed crossing the street unlawfully." The officer then got out of his patrol car and tried to detain him, but the subject walked away."

Police say "the pedestrian began removing his jacket, challenging the officer to fight. The officer charged at the pedestrian to take him into custody. For an unknown reason, the officer threw the pedestrian to the ground and began striking him in the face with his hand multiple times. Within a few moments, additional officers arrived to assist in handcuffing the suspect."

According to police, the beating victim was held in the Sacramento Main Jail and released Tuesday morning due to "insufficient grounds to file a complaint."

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg told the Sacramento Bee Tuesday that he found the actions of the officer "extremely disturbing and not representative of the training nor the expectations we have for our police department."

The name of the officer has not been released, but according to police he is a two-year veteran with the department. He is on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the internal investigation.

Meantime, the video posted on Facebook has been viewed more than 200,000 times and shared by more than 7,000 users.

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