Who can forget the cellphone video after officers were called to break up a fight Sunday in the stairwell of Banko Cantina.
It shows Officer Officer Kevin Harrell dragging Shannon Chatman outside by her hair after he says she pushed his face away from her.
Body camera video from inside, shows another woman, Amanda Fountain get punched in the face by Officer Travis Limauro, after he says he was punched first.
A man even asks Limauro why he hit a woman.
“Oh, but she could punch me in the face? You don’t hit a cop,” you hear Limauro say.
Exclusively, we learned Officer Harrell has been part of 57 investigations into whether the use of force was reasonable. That’s over his 15-year career with the department. Every single one, the department said, was justified.
All 26 of Officer Limauro’s, previous use of force investigations were also determined to be justified. He joined the force in 2010.
“When people hear there have been 57 reviews of use of force, they may think, where there’s smoke there’s fire,” said Robert Pusins. He’s a police expert and executive director of the department of Community services for the Broward County Sheriff’s Office. We asked him to help put the number of use of force investigations into context.
He did not comment directly on this case
“The West Palm Beach Police Department is proactive in that review every incident of use of force by their police officers to make sure that the use of force is in compliance with their policy,” he said. “The West Palm Beach Police Department is meeting best practices as they review use of force with their police officers.”
West Palm Beach police said three of if their officers were assaulted that day.
This is all still under investigation, and police said Monday, once they gather all the facts in this case, they will release them pubicly.
