HESPERIA (AP) — A Southern California sheriff on Thursday ordered an immediate investigation after deputies were recorded beating and kicking a man who fled in a car and on horseback.
“The video surrounding this arrest is disturbing,” San Bernardino County Sheriff-Coroner John McMahon said in a statement. He ordered both an administrative and a criminal investigation.
Shortly after noon, deputies tried to serve a search warrant on an Apple Valley man in connection with an identity-theft investigation, but Francis Pusok, 30, took off in a car, according to a Sheriff’s Department statement.
After a chase into the Hesperia area, Pusok abandoned the car and ran off. Deputies searched for him on foot, with off-road vehicles and by helicopter, the statement said.
Pusok then stole a horse from a group of people at the Deep Creek Hot Springs, the statement said.
KNBC-TV (helicopter footage showed a man dressed in bright red clothing trotting a horse through rugged desert.
The footage then shows the horse appearing to veer or shy as a helicopter sweeps over it. The man then falls or is thrown off the horse.
A deputy runs up, falls, gets up again and uses an electric shock gun on the man. However, the Sheriff’s Department statement said the Taser was ineffective because Pusok was wearing loose clothing.
The video shows the man falling face-down with his arms and legs outstretched, then rising briefly and falling again spread-eagled. Two deputies then appear to come up and kick him in the head and crotch. They then appear to begin pounding him.
Other deputies arrive moments later.
KNBC-TV said up to 13 deputies eventually surrounded the man, and some of them kicked, hit and punched him dozens of times over a two-minute period.
Pusok was taken to a local hospital with unknown injuries, according to the Sheriff’s Department.
It wasn’t immediately clear if he has an attorney. No phone listings were available to try to reach him or a relative.
Two deputies suffered dehydration, a third was kicked by the horse and all were taken to a hospital for treatment, the statement said.
