“As soon as these videos were brought to my attention, I immediately ordered my Office of Professional Standards to open and conduct a thorough and fair investigation into this matter and all of the circumstances involved,” the commissioner said. police officer William Gross in a statement Friday. night.
“I have put a sergeant involved in this incident on administrative leave and will take any additional action that may be necessary at the end of the investigation,” Gross said. “I want to encourage people to call attention to these issues so that we can investigate them properly.”
The videos were handed over to attorney Carl Williams by the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office as part of the discovery of a case working pro bono through the National Advocates Guild, Williams told CNN in a phone interview on Saturday morning.
Williams told CNN that he took on about eight cases of protesters who were arrested during a rally that took place from May 31 to June 1 in Boston.
The video clip that Williams sent to CNN is part of 70 hours of video that was posted to him.
Williams said the narration the police have made that night, which includes protesters “made wild and looted booty in Boston” does not give the full scope of what happened.
“Protesters, activists, organizers, the people at Black Lives Matters, said,‘ The police attacked us and they used guns and they used advanced weapons and chemical weapons, ’” Williams said.
A body camera clip provided to CNN by Williams shows a sergeant “bragging” about his actions during the protest, including hitting people with his vehicle, Williams said.
The unidentified sergeant in the video, which lasts less than a minute, is heard laughing and telling another officer how he hit the protesters with a vehicle.
He describes the use of an unmarked state police cruiser to beat protesters who were nearby.
“I’m f ** king hitting people with the car,” he says.
It is unclear whether the sergeant seen in the video provided to CNN is the same sergeant that the police commissioner left on administrative leave.
“(My criminal defense attorney says there are a lot of minimal assault battery charges with a dangerous weapon, at the very least,” Williams said.
The Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office said it is examining the videos.
“Several of the videos feature disturbing scenes that deserve a deeper examination, which is what the office does,” office spokeswoman Renee Algarin said in an email to CNN. “DA (Rachael) Rollins takes this very seriously.”
CNN has contacted the Boston Police Department and the local police union for additional information and comments.
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh issued a statement Friday night saying the clips – which he described as “difficult to see” – raise questions he hopes the Department of Home Affairs investigation will answer.
“We never want to see police officers using more force than necessary, even when tensions are high,” Walsh said. “Such situations are also exactly the reasons why we are implementing spent cameras for all police officers and why we convened a police reform working group committed to bringing the necessary reforms and accountability to the police department. police, “the statement said.
There were more than a few cases of police violations in the videos, Williams said.
“Police used vindictive weapons to attack people. And you can see that many, many, many times, and they bragged about it, and it’s part of their culture,” Williams said.
“People who are supervisors, not line-level people, people who have gold badges and people who have sergeant stripes brag, steal things, are assaulting people with guns in a vindictive way, they don’t serve and protect roads. And that it’s terrifying. “
CNN’s Laura Ly, Ganesh Setty and Anna Sturla contributed to this report.