The Clark County Sheriff’s Office has released video footage appearing to show a county jail inmate tied up by his arms and dragged to his cell door to remove handcuffs following a search.
On March 18, the sheriff’s office released more than 24 minutes of security camera footage from three angles of the Aug. 13 incident. The office previously announced on March 10 the incident was being investigated for “potentially criminal” use of force.
The inmate, who has not been named, was being held in the jail’s maximum security unit. The inmate’s face, and those of the correction deputies involved, were blurred out in the released footage.The sheriff’s office said the unit housed violent inmates, inmates with behavioral issues, and an area for inmates on suicide watch.
Footage of the hallway outside of the cell shows four corrections deputies approaching the inmate’s cell before he is handcuffed through a slot in the door. The inmate appears to be told by one of the deputies to sit on the bed. There is no audio for any of the three clips released.
Footage from inside the jail cell shows another deputy appear and grab the inmate, pushing him into the bed. The inmate’s head appears to hit the top portion of the bed before he is pinned against the wall and a covering on his head is removed.
The first deputy begins to search the cell while an additional deputy joins him, the footage shows. While they are searching, the deputy who pinned the inmate shifts him from the wall back onto a part of the bed before all three deputies pin the inmate to the ground.
One of the deputies continues part of the search while a fourth appears with a tether, the footage shows. A fifth deputy appears in the cell as well. After appearing to tie the inmate by the arms, the deputies exit the cell and the inmate is dragged toward the door, and his handcuffs are removed through the door’s slot. The inmate’s arms are dragged up to his elbows outside of the cell through the slot, the footage shows.
Footage inside the cell appears to show the inmate checking his arms for injuries following the incident.
The deputy who restrained the inmate as others conducted the search was previously identified as Robert Hanks. He was placed on disciplinary administrative leave when the incident came to light, the sheriff’s office stated.
As of Friday, the sheriff’s office was not prepared to make a formal statement as the internal investigation is still in its early stages.
The videos are available to view online at vimeo.com/689771700, vimeo.com/689771638 and vimeo.com/689771586.
