A white former North Carolina police officer, who was captured on body camera video in 2017 beating and using a stun gun on an African-American man stopped for jaywalking, was the subject Thursday in a criminal arrest warrant for assault and communicating threats, the Buncombe County district attorney announced.
The warrant against Christopher Hickman was issued by Chief Magistrate D.L. Cowan on charges of assault by strangulation, assault inflictin serious injury and communicating threats, according to a press release from District Attorney Todd Williams.
The announcement, which also said no further comment would be forthcoming, comes days after the Asheville Police Department, where Hickman worked at the time of the alleged assault, submitted the results of its investigation into Hickman's actions.
The announcement comes after the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, which had declined to open its own investigation into the matter, said the FBI had launched a criminal investigation into the case.
Federal agents were asked by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation to conduct the criminal probe against Hickman, officials said.
Patty McQuillan, a spokesman for the state Bureau of Investigation, said the decision to bring in the FBI was made after discussions with the Buncombe County District Attorney's Office.
"The SBI director has discussed this with the district attorney and has declined to open a separate state investigation at this time given that the SBI is already assisting with a federal criminal investigation which will encompass most, if not all, of the issues set forth in the district attorney’s request," McQuillan said in a statement to ABC News. "A second state investigation would likely duplicate much of the results of the ongoing federal investigation."
That did not deter Williams from asking the SBI director for a probe as late as March 2, according to a letter tweeted by the D.A. after the disturbing video was leaked to a news organization.
The criminal probe stems from an incident on Aug. 25, 2017, when Hickman and a partner he was training stopped 33-year-old Johnnie Jermaine Rush for allegedly jaywalking in Asheville.
Video taken by Hickman's body camera, which was leaked to the Citizen Times of Asheville, shows he and his partner stopping Rush and telling him they had warned him four times to use a crosswalk instead of jaywalking and trespassing on private property.
"I don't care. I just got off of work, man," Rush told the officers.
Rush went on to tell the officers, "You ain't got nothing better to do besides mess with me, and I'm trying to go home?"
Hickman eventually ordered Rush to put his hands behind his back, but Rush backed away and started to run, the video shows.
As Hickman ran after Rush, he radioed a dispatcher, saying, "black male, tank top, thinks its funny." Then he yelled at Rush, "You know what's funny is you're going to get f----- up hardcore on the ground."
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