A former Atlanta police officer has been found guilty of assault and falsifying a police report in federal court for beating a man whom he accused of stealing a tomato.
Turns out the man had a receipt in his pocket for the fruit/vegetable, but that didn’t stop the officer from beating him so severely with a baton that he severed an artery and the man’s bone poked through his skin.
In October 2014, while moonlighting at a South West Atlanta Walmart, Trevor King, 49, severely beat Tyrone Carnegay, 53, after accusing him of stealing an item worth less than a dollar.
Of course, after the vicious assault, captured on video, King found the receipt in Carnegay’s pocket, and dropped a theft charge against him, but Carnegay was still jailed for three days on charges of “obstructing an investigation and assaulting a police officer.”
WSB-TV 2 reports that Carnegay was chained to the bed at Grady and then jailed after undergoing emergency surgery.
Let that sink in – this man was walking out of a Wal-mart with a tomato – a tomato he paid for. An off-duty cop comes over to “investigate” and beats him so severely with a baton that a bone is sticking out of his leg, rupturing an artery which could have killed him. On top of that he’s jailed for three days. And his medical bills are around $75,000.
The DOJ released this tweet after King’s conviction:
DOJ press release: Atlanta police sergeant convicted for breaking a Walmart shopper’s leg with his baton on suspicion of stealing a tomato. After finding a receipt, he filed a false report.
King, a former sergeant who retired in January—surely so he could collect his pension—was convicted by jurors on Fri. Dec. 8, 2017 of using unreasonable force and falsifying a police report.
WSB-TV reports that King was a serial liar. Prosecutors presented two false incident reports filed by King in his 26-year career with APD. He was disciplined in both cases.
Read more at WSB-TV.
