Victoria Police has launched an internal investigation after footage appearing to show an officer kicking a man in the head rocketed across social media on Sunday afternoon.
A video of the incident, shot from a passing car in the Melbourne suburb of Epping, shows six uniformed officers standing over a man lying on a median strip.
The footage appears to show an officer yelling at the man, before lifting his foot and forcefully kicking him in the back of the head.
“Are you fucking kidding me,” a man in the car says.
The remaining officers can be seen restraining the first man on the ground.
“You’ve got his head,” a man yells from the car.
The video ends with the car leaving the scene.
“Unbelievable,” one man yells at police from the vehicle.
Video of a police officer in Melbourne stomping on a man’s head has sparked outrage online and will become the focus of a professional standards probe. #9Today pic.twitter.com/RsdUkXiLFX
— The Today Show (@TheTodayShow) September 13, 2020
Citing Victoria Police, The Age reports the man shown in the footage was hospitalised after the incident.
A police spokesperson said officers arrived on scene around 4.10pm Sunday, after receiving reports of a man acting “erratically”.
Victoria Police claim the man damaged a police vehicle and assaulted an officer, leading to police using capsicum spray during his arrest.
The man was “subsequently taken to hospital for assessment,” Victoria Police state.
The incident has been forwarded to the Professional Standards Command, the in-house organisation tasked with chasing up complaints about police conduct.
The video, and copies of it, have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times in the hours since it was first posted.
