Roderick Walker: Georgia deputy filmed punching black man is fired

A sheriff’s deputy has been fired after a video appeared showing him throwing a black man to the floor and punching him in the face, police in Georgia reported.

Roderick Walker, 26, was a passenger in a car that was pulled over by deputies for an allegedly breaking rear light. Police tried to arrest him.

The video showed that Walker was being held by two white deputies, one of them punched him.

In a statement, Clayton County Sheriff’s Office said “the deputy who repeatedly struck Roderick Walker” was to lose his job “for excessive use of force”.

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The statement added that a criminal investigation has been turned over to the district attorney’s office.

The incident had happened on Friday near the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

Mr. Walker’s lawyer, Shean Williams, said his client had been a passenger in the lift-share car with his girlfriend, their five-month-old child, and his stepson when police pulled them over.

Williams said that Mr. Walker became upset when he was inquired for his identification as he hadn’t been driving the car.

“He informed them that he did not have any ID and that he didn’t need any since he was not driving a vehicle,” he said.

“When they didn’t like his question, they then demanded that he get out of a vehicle that he wasn’t driving. It escalates to him being beaten on the ground, being tased, and almost dying. And they take him to jail.”

“My reaction to the video is that it just shows, unfortunately, another incident where an African American male’s civil rights have been violated by people and officers and law enforcement who have the duty first to protect and serve,” Mr. Williams said.