*(CNN) — Two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies have been taken off field duty as their department investigates force they used when a couple was being detained at a Southern California grocery store last month, the county sheriff’s department said.
(Meanwhile, via the video above, community members in Lancaster, CA where the incident happened, make clear they are demanding justice for the woman that was brutally assaulted by one of the deputies.)
The encounter unfolded on June 24 as deputies responded to a report of a robbery in the city of Lancaster and tried to detain a couple matching the description of suspects given by store security in calls to 911, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said without releasing details about the descriptions.
“As deputies attempted to detain the individuals described by store security personnel, the encounter escalated into a use of force incident that was captured by a community member with a cell phone camera,” the sheriff’s department said in a news release. “The video is disturbing.”
County Sheriff Robert Luna echoed those sentiments at a news conference Wednesday, saying he is “also committed to full transparency” and decided to release the store video publicly.
“I have seen the video – both the video collected by the community member and our body-worn camera footage that we put out Monday night. And it’s disturbing. There’s no ifs and buts about it,” Luna said.
On Wednesday night, protesters gathered at the WinCo grocery store to protest the use of force witnessed.
“I just couldn’t believe my eyes, I was just so upset,” Lisa Garrett, who recorded cell phone video footage of the detention, said at the protest. “You weren’t there. I was there. It was really bad.”
Footage shows woman thrown to ground
The agency released body camera footage of the encounter, which shows a deputy arrive on scene and tell a man repeatedly to put his hands on the hood of a police cruiser. When the man refuses, the officer repeatedly tells him to sit down.
The man is heard saying he’s done nothing wrong and says, “They approached us first, man,” but it’s not clear who he is referring to.
The deputy radios dispatch that he has made contact and that the man is uncooperative, and then tells the man, “Sit down, dude. We’ll figure this out.”
The man sits on a rock after the deputy tells him to, and he says, “I told them to call the police” and “I waited for you.”
The video shows deputies approach the man, telling him they were going to do a pat-down. The man says, “I don’t have nothing.”
The two deputies handcuff him while the man says, “I’m not even being resistant.” He asks why he is being detained and deputies do not answer, the video shows.
While he is being handcuffed, the man is heard saying his arm is “f**ked up.”
