HAZARD, Ky. (LEX 18) — Kentucky State Police responded Tuesday to a viral TikTok video that shows two men pinning a person down while a state trooper looks on.
In the video, poster “@the_savage_lokius” questions why a trooper was filmed standing by as two white men pinned a Black male, whose age is not known, down on the pavement of a parking lot.
@the_savage_lokius #crownedofthefold #evolutionofthefold #blackaugust #hazardky #calltoaction Ok Let's Get It comment what u find Contact info at the end of the video
“I’m going to show this video because we don’t have any context of what is happening, but a police officer is definitely standing there doing nothing,” the poster said before playing video of the incident. The poster encouraged anyone in the Hazard area to help figure out what happened.
Kentucky State Police said Tuesday that the incident in the video happened on June 21, and that the trooper responded to assist with a “situation” in the parking lot.
“The Trooper spoke with the individual’s caregivers and took appropriate action to de-escalate the situation by utilizing Crisis Intervention Training, a program developed by the National Alliance on Mental Illness, that allowed the caregivers to use their training to prevent the individual from harming himself or others,” KSP Commissioner Phillip Burnett, Jr., said in a statement. “EMS responded to the scene and transported the individual to the hospital where he was treated and released.”
The video shows the trooper standing near the two men pinning the person down and talking with them. The person being pinned begins screaming at one point in the video, and the men pinning him down appear to eventually move so they are not putting their weight on him.
Kentucky law states that the use of physical force by a parent, guardian or caregiver is “justifiable” when the defendant believes that force is necessary to “promote the welfare” of a minor or mentally disabled person and when the force is not used with the intent or risk of causing “death, serious physical injury, disfigurement, extreme pain, or extreme mental distress.”
The video ends before the ambulance arrived.
