Ex-Shreveport, La. Police Department Officer Dylan Hudson will spend nearly two years in prison for assaulting a non-violent loitering suspect in a “grossly excessive and inhumane” manner.
A U.S. Department of Justice news release says Hudson kicked a non-violent loitering suspect in the face, hit him in the head, and tasered him multiple times.
Hudson, 37, was convicted after a four-day trial this year and sentenced Wednesday.
“This defendant’s use of force was grossly excessive, inhumane and potentially fatal. The defendant repeatedly hit a nonviolent suspect in the head, kicked him in the face, tased him multiple times and pistol-whipped him in the head,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “When an officer so grievously abuses the authority entrusted to him by his community, the Justice Department will respond with the full force of the law.”
From DOJ news release:
“The evidence at trial established that Hudson physically assaulted a loitering suspect during a daytime arrest in Shreveport. During the arrest, Hudson repeatedly struck the suspect in the head and face. The conduct showed by police body-worn cameras included several potentially deadly uses of force, including striking the man in the head with a loaded pistol, tasing him at the base of the skull and kicking him in the face. Hudson’s fellow officers testified that the loitering suspect was non-violent throughout the entire arrest, and that Hudson’s repeated violations of training and policy created a danger not only to the suspect, but to others as well.”
The FBI New Orleans Field Office investigated the case.
Further reading is the U.S. DOJ Office Of Justice Program’s 1978 report on the topic of excessive police force.
