Video of College Student Abused by DC Cops Sparks Protests

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A video that went viral on Twitter appears to show Jason Goolsby, an 18-year-old freshman at the University of the District of Columbia, being brutally beaten and detained by police officers Monday night. The person making the video was interfering with police, and was also detained while the incident was investigated.

Goolsby and two friends were simply hanging around outside a Citibank in the Capitol Hill neighborhood Monday deciding whether they wanted to withdraw money from an ATM, when all of the sudden they were bum rushed by D.C. police officers, according to a story in The Washington Post. Moments later, Goolsby said, he saw D.C. police cars racing toward him. Erika Totten, an activist who identified herself online as one of Goolsby’s former teachers, described him as “one of the sweetest boys I’ve ever had the honor of teaching”. The friend says repeatedly in the video that Goolsby had not done anything wrong. He was handcuffed after he resisted and refused to stop. The location for the call was 6th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in Southeast D.C. They rallied behind the a hashtag, #JusticeforJason, an allusion to the perceived misconduct of the police officers.

His friend, who has not been named but is reportedly a high school senior, began recording the encounter after police had already detained Goolsby. One individual fled on foot from the police, was chased, and then taken down.

After one officer screams at him to back up, a third officer shows up and threatens the cameraman with arrest before a scuffle breaks out and the video stops.

The police department claimed the detainment was in response to reports of a robbery but later confirmed “no criminal act was found to have taken place” and the circumstances would be reviewed to “ensure that policies and procedures were followed”.