Dashcam video shows an Orange County sheriff’s deputy repeatedly punching a man in the face and then dragging him to the ground, but the sheriff’s department says the force used was appropriate.
Mohamed Sayem was sitting in his car in a parking lot of the Corner Pocket Bar in Westminister waiting for the alcohol to wear off, but his attorney said what happened next is use of excessive force. The video shows two Orange County deputies on either side of Sayem’s car asking to see his identification.
Sayem and the deputies are seen talking to each other just before he is pressed up against the car and punched in the face repeatedly until he finally falls to the ground.
"You going to shoot me?," Sayem asked the deputies.
He is then restrained on the ground. Sayem suffered injuries to his head and knees, attorney Scott Sanders said.
Deputies were called to the parking lot by a resident who encountered Sayem, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Department. In a statement, the agency said "the deputy made every attempt to deescalate the situation."
"The subject refused to do so and attempted to physically engage the deputy, during which the deputy used force appropriate for the situation to gain control of an uncooperative, assaultive and intoxicated person," the statement continued. "The deputy's report is consistent with the video in its entirety, and charges were filed by the OC District Attorney's office. Any assertion otherwise substantially misrepresents the facts, and serves only to swell an anti-law enforcement narrative."
Sayem is now charged with a felony of resisting arrest.
"You blew it," Sander’s said. "You beat him up in a situation you didn’t need that level of force. The answer can’t be that Mr. Sayem pays the price."
