A 19-year-old offender's hands were handcuffed behind his back when a Louisville Metro Department of Corrections (LMDC) officer punched him in the face.
According to a lawsuit filed by Terry Whitehead, currently incarcerated at LMDC, against former corrections officers Edward Schwartz and Devan Edwards, the three men got into a minor scuffle before Whitehead was placed in handcuffs, pepper-sprayed and punched by both officers.
“What did I do, bro?” the 19-year-old asked in a video that has recently surfaced of the April incident. He did not stand from his seat.
The lawsuit alleges there were other instances in which Whitehead was targeted for covering his cell window with toilet paper when he needed to use the restroom and subsequently beaten by the same men.
“I ain’t never had a problem out of you,” former correctional officer Devan Edwards, who wore a body camera from which the footage was salvaged, replied. “Why you gonna spit on us?”
Warning: The body cam footage is graphic.
In the video, Whitehead flew from the impact of the punch, rebounding in his seat on the cell bench, and the eye on the hurt side of his face shut harshly in pain.
“What I saw in that video was shocking and disturbing to me,” Louisville Metro Department of Corrections Director Mark Bolton told Wave 3 News. “I’ve been in this business 40 years, and I’d never seen anything quite like that.”
But Schwartz had. The officer is a former Marine who pleaded guilty to domestic criminal trespass and attempting to break a building, Wave 3 reports. Edwards has also faced criminal investigations in the past with his actions being called into question over a picture on social media.
Both Edwards and Schwartz have been fired.
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