A Washtenaw county sheriff deputy has been placed on administrative leave as an investigation is conducted into a video recorded incident showing him apparently punching a woman in the head for refusing to leave the scene of a shooting.
The deputy who is white is seen repeatedly punching the African American woman in the head at the scene of a recent Ypsilanti Township shooting because she refused to leave the scene as ordered by police. Upon seeing the video, Washtenaw county sheriff Jerry Clayton says he launched an immediate investigation....
"so when I see it I thought why is he doing that? Why would he do that? Why would anybody respond in that way? I can’t see what she is doing, so it is incumbent upon us to investigate that.”
Sheriff Clayton says he has spent the last decade trying to repair the culture and relationship police have with the community which is even more personally difficult for him as an African American Sheriff. He says there are no easy answers adding he is is sensitive to the trauma and the anger and the rage people have from this incident.