Missouri Police Officer Terminated After Viral Video Showed Him Striking Unarmed Man With Vehicle

A Missouri police officer, who was involved in a violent arrest that was caught on video, has been terminated from his service.

Police Chief Timothy Fagan with the Florissant Police Department, in an official release on Wednesday (June 10), announced the termination of Detective Joshua Smith.

The announcement comes a week after a doorbell video that went viral captured Smith striking a man with an unmarked police vehicle and then plunging the unarmed man to the ground. He continued to strike him. In the video, the man is heard screaming as Smith places handcuffs on him.

After the video went viral, several people have been conducting marches in front of the Florissant Police Department.

According to Fagan, even though the incident took place on Tuesday (June 2), officials came to know about it only days later, on Saturday (June 6).

“What’s important to us is that, obviously, we hear the concerns. We’re equally concerned,” he said, adding that this is “not the reputation that the police department wants,” Fagen said in the release.

Fagan added that the incident occurred when three men were being chased after Smith and his colleagues spotted a car with “suspicious behavior” as it “repositioned itself” three times in a parking lot. The description of the car they were in matched to that of a vehicle wanted for a shooting incident reported in Ferguson the night before.

After the car violated traffic signals, Smith attempted to pull over the men. The car showed no signs of stopping and the occupants jumped out in Dellwood.

“We looked and examined this incident. We wanted to make sure we were right for their sake and the community," Fagan said.

The man suffered an injury to his ankle after he was hit by the patrol car. He was arrested and charged with resisting arrest.

St. Charles County Prosecuting Attorney Tim Lohmar, who was handling Smith’s case, called the video "shocking and disturbing."

Lohmar, during a news conference on Monday, called the behavior depicted in the video “not acceptable police work.” He said the officer’s act of using the SUV to strike the suspect represented “potentially lethal force.”

According to Fagan, two other officers involved in the incident who stayed in the car were suspended. He said even though he does not believe those officers did anything wrong, they will undergo an investigation.

John Rogers, a lawyer for one of the detectives, Tim Swope, told local media, “Detective (Tim) Swope’s suspension is nothing more than an overreaction to public outrage regarding the conduct of the detective driving the SUV.”

According to local sources, Smith, a nine-year veteran, has been sued twice in the past. Court records show that he was sued in 2017 after a man claimed that the detective, along with other officers, used excessive force to take him to custody. The man said that Smith rammed the patrol vehicle into his car before pulling him out and assaulting him at a traffic stop. The case is still pending.

In another incident reported in 2013, the family of a Florissant man sued Smith and the department, claiming that the officer shot and killed his son. The case was dismissed. However, the court documents point out that the department tried covering up the shooting into a suicide.