Armed police officer caught on video kicking man in the face while he lay on the ground at Manchester Airport
Footage shows Greater Manchester police officer pointing Taser at two men, kicking one of them and hitting the other
An armed police officer has been filmed kicking a man in the face as he lay on the ground after an altercation at Manchester airport.
Footage shared widely online showed the officer pointing his Taser at the man and then kicking him with force in the face and stamping on his head.
The officer is then seen pointing his Taser at a second man, dragging him to the floor and hitting him on the head.
Nazir Afzal, a former chief crown prosecutor, said on X that he saw “no justification” for the officer’s actions and called for an “explanation and/or accountability”.
Greater Manchester police (GMP) said they acknowledged “the concerns of the conduct within the video” and that their professional standards directorate was assessing the incident.
The force said the incident occurred after officers were called to reports of an altercation between members of the public in terminal 2 of the airport on Tuesday.
The force said a female officer sustained a broken nose and two other officers were “subject to a violent assault” and “punched to the ground” as they attempted to arrest one of the suspects. The three officers were taken to hospital for treatment, GMP said.
A force spokesperson said: “As the attending officers were firearms officers, there was a clear risk during this assault of their firearms being taken from them. Four men were arrested at the scene for affray and assault on emergency service workers. We acknowledge the concerns of the conduct within the video, and our professional standards directorate are assessing this.”
The Independent Office for Police Conduct said it was aware of the footage and had contacted GMP to make inquiries. It said the force had not referred the incident to the independent watchdog at present.
In the footage, the man kicked by the armed officer is lying face down on the ground with his arms by his side, and an older woman is kneeling beside him with her hands on his back.
As the prone man turns his head towards the police, the officer kicks him with force in the face before stamping on his head then kneeing the man in the side. His Taser is drawn on the man at all times.
Shocked onlookers can be heard shouting “move back, move back” and demanding to know why the officer kicked the man. A female officer can be seen pointing her Taser at the crowd.
The male officer then turns his Taser on another man sitting on a bench and orders him to get down. As the man kneels on the floor with his hands behind his head, the officer stamps on his left leg and hits him around the back of the head with his Taser.
Amar Minhas, from Leeds, said he had just landed at the airport when he saw the incident unfold. He told the BBC that police approached one of the men, in his early 20s, and told him he was a wanted man before they “pinned him up against a wall”.
Another man then “started on the police” and a fight ensued, Minhas said. This man started “throwing punches, he was Tasered and fell to the floor,” he said. “That’s when the policeman kicked him.”
Howard Beckett, a former member of Labour’s national executive committee, described the officer’s actions as “the most brutal of assaults” and “thuggery in uniforms”.
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