Police video showing five Birmingham, Ala., officers beating an unconscious black man was edited before it was used as evidence to prosecute the man, authorities said today.
The five officers were fired Tuesday by Birmingham’s police chief, who said his agency didn’t tamper with the video.
The tape shows a high-speed chase involving Anthony Shannon Warren, who struck a Birmingham officer with a minivan before crashing the vehicle. The tape shows Warren being ejected from the vehicle, unconscious, and five officers then kicking, punching and beating him with batons.
The beating scene was deleted before the tape was turned over to a DA and used to prosecute Warren, originally on an attempted murder charge.
The missing scene may have remained undiscovered if an assistant district attorney had not experienced technical problems with the copy and asked for another.
The full tape was released today.
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