Two white Alabama police officers have been charged with assault for beating a black man and threatening to kill him after he got into a road rage incident with one of their wives.
Selma Police officer Matthew Blaine Till and Dallas County sheriff’s deputy John Nicholas Taccone were hit with felony assault charges on Tuesday.
On April 30 Till's wife got into a road rage incident and called her husband to tell him about her squabble with a 'black guy in a red Charger', according to court documents.
Till and Taccone arrived to the scene near a Exxon at the 2700 block of Highway 80 West in Selma and found the driver exiting a parking lot. They stopped him and ordered him out of the vehicle.
Selma Police officer Matthew Blaine Till and Dallas County sheriff’s deputy John Nicholas Taccone were hit with felony assault charges on Tuesday for assaulting a black man on April 30 who got into a road rage incident with Till's wife
Till placed one handcuff on the victim but was unable to get the second one one him and a physical struggle ensued, where the officers struck his head and face in a brutal beat down, according to AL.com.
In the 90-second confrtontation, Till allegedly pulled out a gun and told the victim that he was 'going to kill him'.
'They Tased him multiple times, threw him to the ground and were punching and kicking him. It was a brutal beating. All this was happening while the victim was repeatedly asking the officers "What did I do?" Dallas County District Attorney Michael Jackson said announcing the charges.
Jackson pointed out that both cops were white and their victim black.
The unidentified black man eventually got into his car and fled, but crashed his vehicle a short time later.
He was then transported to a holding cell at the city's police department where federal agents interviewed him about weapons that were found inside his car, court documents said.
On Wednesday Dallas County District Attorney Michael Jackson announced that both men were charged with felony second-degree assault, unlawful imprisonment and obstructing governmental operations
'It was a brutal beating. All this was happening while the victim was repeatedly asking the officers "What did I do?"' Jackson said at the Wednesday press conference
'These officers escalated a personal matter that should have been a traffic stop at worse into a Rocky Horror beating,' Jackson said.
Till was fired, and Taccone is no longer employed with the sheriff's office, according to the prosecutor. It was not immediately clear if either of the two men had an attorney who could comment.
'Public officials are held to a higher standard,' Jackson said, according to the Selma Times-Journal. 'It was a bullying situation. The badge is a symbol of integrity and protection.'
Both men were then charged Tuesday with felony second-degree assault, unlawful imprisonment and obstructing governmental operations.
Till pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in federal court last week for telling Taconne not to speak with anyone about the call he received from his wife before the incident.
A federal judge has set his sentencing date to December 28.
