Newly-surfaced video shows white Louisiana police officer brutally beating Black motorist

New Orleans, August 27 (RHC)-- In the U.S. state of Louisiana, a lawyer for a Black motorist who was brutally beaten by a white State Police trooper more than two years ago has obtained body-camera video of the incident. 

The video from May 2019 was also obtained by the Associated Press.  It shows officer Jacob Brown striking Aaron Larry Bowman with a flashlight 18 times.  The assault left Bowman with a broken jaw, broken wrist, three broken ribs and six stitches on his head.  Louisiana State Police waited 536 days to open an investigation — and only did so after Bowman brought a civil lawsuit.

Last December, state prosecutors charged officer Brown with aggravated battery and malfeasance in office; those charges remain on hold pending a federal investigation. 

Brown is from the same State Police unit — known as “Troop F” — whose officers killed Ronald Greene, a 49-year-old Black man, by tasering, punching and dragging him during an arrest in 2019. 

Troop F is under an internal investigation looking into whether white officers are systematically targeting Black motorists for abuse.