Video shows an Austin, Texas, police officer appearing to throw a single punch — and a male crumpling to the ground and lying flat on his back a second later.
The video is part of a KXAN-TV report about a “crowd control” incident Friday night on Sixth Street, and the station said it received “two witness videos of the scene.”
‘The action is inexcusable and indefensible.’
One of those videos “appears to show an officer in a blue shirt shoving a bystander in an orange shirt. Another officer wearing a black shirt appears to throw a punch. The man in the orange shirt is later seen on the ground,” KXAN said. The male seen lying on the ground also is wearing blue jeans and a backward white baseball cap.
The video included in the station’s story — which contains no sound — shows just one angle of the officer’s apparent single punch.
However, another video circulating on social media shows what apparently is a much closer view of the punch from a front-facing angle — and the crowd reacts strongly as a male wearing an orange shirt, blue jeans, and a backward white baseball cap is motionless on the ground.
But that wasn’t the only incident involving police recorded on video that night in Austin.
KXAN said a second video it received shows an “officer on top of a person, appearing to punch them multiple times.”
Indeed, KVUE-TV in its report said it received two videos of this second incident “from witnesses at the scene. Both videos show an officer on top of a person, appearing to punch them numerous times. Another officer, who is holding a separate person down, then assists the first officer, putting his knee on the back of the person being held down and appearing to throw a punch at him.”
Here’s a video report showing another angle of the second incident. Interestingly, it shows a male dressed in an orange shirt, blue jeans, and a backward white baseball cap — apparently the same one who was knocked flat on his back in the video of the single-punch incident — standing off to the side and watching the officers punch the male on the ground:
Officers’ names reportedly revealed
In a follow-up story, KVUE said it obtained documents from the District Court of Travis County revealing more information about what took place in the second incident caught on video.
The station said Austin Police Officer Leger was working in the downtown area when he heard a radio call reporting a “physical altercation” outside the Voodoo Room nightclub. With that, Officer Leger and Officer Garcia responded to the scene, where two men reportedly were fighting, KVUE said.
The station, citing court documents, reported that Officer Leger tried to break up the fight when he was struck in the back of the head, after which he “executed a controlled takedown maneuver” on one of the men, who allegedly resisted. KVUE noted that the court documents indicate Officer Leger struck the man in the face several times in response.
Documents added that a crowd reportedly formed around the officers, and people began throwing objects and pushing and kicking, the station said.
KVUE reported that the male accused of attacking Officer Leger was identified as 19-year-old Johnny Acuña-Jacobo, and he was arrested on a charge of assault on a peace officer, a second-degree felony, and booked into the Travis County Jail on a $10,000 bond. Jail records on Monday indicated Acuña-Jacobo was booked into jail at 4:16 a.m. Saturday and that he was still behind bars Monday. The jail on Monday told Blaze News that while his bond has been paid, Acuña-Jacobo remains incarcerated until an ankle monitor arrives for him.
Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis in a statement to KXAN early Saturday said “last night, an Austin police officer struck an individual during a crowd control incident on Sixth Street. After reviewing the video footage, I share the community’s concern and take this matter very seriously. The officer has been removed from patrol and placed on restricted duty pending a thorough investigation.”
While two officers were named in the follow-up KVUE story — Officer Leger and Officer Garcia — it doesn’t indicate which officer was placed on restricted duty.
Blaze News reached out to Austin police for clarification on which officer was removed from the street in regard to which incident, but the department on Monday afternoon didn’t immediately respond to Blaze News’ request for clarification.
Maria Delgado told KXAN that Acuña-Jacobo is her son and that on Saturday afternoon she saw the video of him getting punched and hasn’t slept much since then. When asked how she is feeling, Delgado replied to KXAN, “Tired, frustrated, [and] helpless. When are these individuals going to face criminal charges? That’s a crime, what they committed.”
Austin Mayor Kirk Watson released the following statement Saturday to KXAN: “I have seen the video of an Austin Police Officer on 6th Street last night. The action is inexcusable and indefensible. There is no room in APD for such violent behavior or for someone who claims to be a public servant and acts that way. I know that Chief Davis will take appropriate action, including action that leads to termination. Again, there is no room for such offensive, ridiculous action.”
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