An Alabama police officer has been charged with assault after a 57-year-old Indian man was thrown to the ground, an incident he says left him partially paralyzed.
Footage from police cameras shows a confrontation between Sureshbhai Patel and two officers in Alabama suburb of Madison.
Sureshbhai Patel speaks no English and tries to walk away from the officers, who eventually shove him to the ground.
He has filed a legal case accusing the officers of racism, and the FBI is also investigating.
Police officials in Madison, Alabama, apologized to Sureshbhai Patel and his family at a news conference on February 12.
They said one of the officers involved in February 6 incident had been arrested, and officials had recommended that he be fired.
The officer involved “did not meet the high standards and expectations of the Madison Police Department”, said Madison Police Chief Larry Muncey.
Sureshbhai Patel had only recently arrived in the US to help care for his grandson, who was born prematurely.
He was walking outside his son’s home on Friday morning when police said they received a call from a neighbor about a suspicious person.
According to the civil rights complaint filed in court on February 12, Sureshbhai Patel told the police officers who stopped him “no English, Indian”, and gave his son’s house number.
A police officer then threw him abruptly to the ground, injuring him seriously, the complaint said.
Sureshbhai Patel’s son, Chirag Patel, told the local media in Alabama that his father had to undergo surgery to fuse two vertebrae in his spine and that he was still unable to move his left leg.
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