The Huntsville Police Department is investigating after a video recorded Sunday evening and shared via Facebook Live depicted an officer stomping on a man’s leg while making an arrest.
The one-and-a-half-minute video begins with one officer struggling to subdue and handcuff a man lying on the floor of the MapCo gas station on University Drive in Huntsville.
A woman can be heard shouting for help in the background, and seconds after the video begins two more officers come into view.
One of the two officers stands above the man being arrested and stomps on his right knee multiple times, repeatedly yelling “stop resisting.”
Another officer rushes in to help a moment later and the four officers proceed to subdue the man without further incident and quickly handcuff him before escorting him out of view.
By the time the man is handcuffed, five officers are visible in the video. All of them are white and the man they apprehended is Black.
Capt. Michael Johnson of the Huntsville Police Department sent a one-sentence response to an email with questions about the incident.
“We are aware of the video and investigating at this time,” Johnson wrote.
AL.com was not immediately able to reach Bruce Turner, the Huntsville barber who recorded the video.
A woman who answered the telephone Sunday night at the MapCo where the incident happened said, “I don’t know anything about it, don’t call back, thank you,” then hung up.
A group called Huntsville Bail Fund on Monday posted on Facebook that they were seeking help to get Kemontae Hobbs out of jail, saying he “was brutalized by Huntsville Police last night.”
“Police were called because Kemontae was panhandling outside a gas station, leading to the viral video of an officer attempting to break his leg,” the post stated.
Hobbs was shown on a jail log as being held on charges of obstructing governmental operations and resisting arrest.
“Kemontae has had several run-ins with the cops. They are aware that he has schizophrenia, and is sometimes known to wander when he isn’t able to access treatment. After his arrest and brutalization, Huntsville Police called to tell his mother that they had her son, and knew he was mentally ill. They treated him like this anyway,” the post states.
His mother, Kimberlyn Hayes, said she was told a cashier called the police on Hobbs, who she said suffers from schizophrenia, after he asked someone for a dollar.
“It didn’t take all those officers when he was already down,” Hayes said. “How was he resisting when he was already on the ground and you are stomping on him like a dog? That’s not how you handle things.”
Hayes said she is considering hiring an attorney to look into the incident.
“The police just think they can do what they want and beat on people. That’s not right,” Hayes said.
