One of the Oakland Police Department's most-decorated cops and one of his subordinate officers have been reassigned following their involvement in shooting an Occupy Oakland protester with a non-lethal beanbag, according to reports.
Capt. Ersie Joyner III is the supervisor of the officer who fired a beanbag round at protester Scott Campbell at around 1 a.m. Nov. 3, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Campbell, 30, of Oakland, says he was merely videotaping cops when the officer in question shot him in the leg with the beanbag round. He was later seen at a hospital. The cops were trying to control unruly crowds after the day of protest turned ugly, police say.
The nonlethal ammo can only be used with the OK of a supervisor, the newspaper reported. The name of the officer in question has not been released, but he and supervisor Capt. Joyner have both been reassigned pending an internal investigation, sources told the Chronicle.
Despite the investigation, Campbell says nobody from the police department has contacted him -- nor did cops escort him to a hospital, as their general orders say they must. According to the Oakland Police Department's own rulebook, beanbag ammo can be used only when someone presents "an immediate threat of loss of life or serious bodily injury to themselves, officers or the general public," and anyone struck by a beanbag "shall be transported to a hospital."
Joyner, the Chronicle observed, is one of the department's best-known officers: he was head of homicide in 2007, when he was accused of wrongdoing during the investigations of the slaying of journalist Chauncey Bailey, he shot and killed a suspect in a May 2011 incident, and he also won a medal when he discovered the location of hiding cop-killer Lovelle Mixon in 2009.
Occupy-Shooting Oakland Cops Reassigned
Two Oakland cops who used beanbag ammo against a man using a camera have been reassigned.
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