DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Channel 2 has learned new information about an officer seen on video beating a DeKalb County woman with a baton. The officer says the woman was resisting arrest.
An open records request filed by Channel 2's Sophia Choi found officer P.J. Larschied has numerous incidents of use of force and complaints in the past, but was only reprimanded twice.
The phrase "use of force" encompasses a wide variety of situations. For example, one of Larschied's incidents involved shooting an injured deer on the side of the road using his police-issued handgun.
On June 4, Officer Larschied was caught on video beating a woman with a baton after he says she was resisting arrest for soliciting customers outside of a Chevron gas station.
A witness, who wants to remain anonymous, posted the video on YouTube and says this went too far.
“She’s a woman, and he didn’t have to do that to her. If he could hold her down and beat her, he could have held her down and put the handcuffs on her.”
Officer Larschied is on restricted duty as GBI investigates.
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Choi spent Monday going through hundreds of pages in Larschied's personnel file.
In March 2012, Larschied got written counseling for cursing at a man, during a theft investigation.
In January 2014, he again got written counseling for failing to take a recovered car off the stolen car list.
A more serious incident happened on September 27, 2015. Officer Larschied shot a man when police say he refused to drop his weapon during a domestic dispute.
After an internal investigation, police cleared Officer Larshied of any wrongdoing. This incident happened on Glenwood Road, not far from this latest incident at the Chevron.
The woman's husband in the Chevron case, Antoine McCrary, tells us he's glad this case is getting a second look.
"What I've seen was wrong. It was a male beating a woman and he did not need to use that much force," he said.
We reached out to Officer Larschied for comment but haven't heard back.
Cox Media Group
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