A South Carolina sherriff's deputy has been fired after being filmed handcuffing and yelling at a female Army soldier while off duty, WIST-TV reported on Wednesday.
49-year-old Deputy Allen Derrick was fired on Tuesday after video of his Oct. 7 encounter with 23-year-old Brittany Ball at a Columbia, South Carolina bar was posted online. Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott reportedly fired Derrick before a scheduled meeting with interim Police Chief Police Chief Ruben Santiago and Solicitor Dan Johnson.
In the video Derrick -- who was off-duty at the time -- can be seen grabbing a handcuffed Ball from behind and yelling, "Stand up, soldier" at her. Witnesses said at the time that Derrick had approached Ball, leading to an argument between the two before he exited the bar, grabbed his handcuffs, gun and badge from his personal vehicle and returned to attempt to detain her. The footage was shot by a fellow service member, Steven Hughes, who is stationed with Ball at Fort Jackson.
"I said, 'I'm going to start videoing this because I think something is about to get out of hand,'" Hughes told WIST. "And about the time I got my [camera] out, he had her turned around and was putting her in handcuffs."
Local police ordered Derrick to release Ball at the time and arrested him on charges of assault and battery, a decision Lott reportedly opposed at first, but did not question at a press conference on Wednesday.
"It made me angry, and then it made me sick and disgusted that any law enforcement officer would act that way, particularly a Richland County deputy," WIST quoted Lott as saying. "There's absolutely no excuse for his behavior and what he did that night. He interjected himself into something that he should of never gotten involved in."
Watch WIST's report on Derrick's firing, originally aired on Tuesday, below.
wistv.com - Columbia, South Carolina |
[h/t Police State USA]
