Caught on Camera: Altercation Between Pedestrian, Off-Duty Cop

The video purportedly shows the officer, wearing a Red Sox jersey and not presenting a badge, holding the man to the sidewalk and dragging him down the street to his car

An off-duty Boston Police officer was caught on camera pinning a man to the ground in an altercation Tuesday evening.

The video purportedly shows the officer, wearing a Red Sox jersey and not presenting a badge, holding the man to the sidewalk and dragging him down the street to his car around 5:30 p.m.

Necn has chosen to blur both men's faces.

The altercation appears to have been over jaywalking.

"I started to tape it because it didn't look right," said Stephen Harlowe, who was on his way home from work when he saw the incident unfold.

"I said, 'What did he do, what did he do? Where is your ID?' and he would not answer me," Harlowe said. "You can see in the tape the victim turns around and he said, 'he cut me off in the intersection and he was mad.' So it was complete road rage at that point."

According to Harlowe, the man said he had crossed at the intersection of Boylston Street and Arlington Street - he reportedly used a crosswalk, but had a don't walk sign.

When the undercover police officer came around the corner in his car, the man says the car cut him off, so he banged on the window with his umbrella.

The officer said the man cracked the window.

"I saw it with my eyes," Harlowe said. "It's absolutely not scratched."

Harlowe told necn he's talked to the man in the purple shirt since, and that so far, he has not been charged with a crime.

"He acted like he had shot somebody," Harlowe said of the officer. "It was very uncalled for, it was completely unnecessary."

"The video was recently brought to our attention," Boston Police said in a statement. "It has been turned over to the internal affairs division who has initiated an inquiry. This inquiry will including speaking to the officer and attempting to contact witnesses and parties involved."

"I don't know what happen before it," Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said of the video. "Certainly during it, it seemed a little aggressive, but again, we're going to wait and see what happens with internal affairs before we take any action, before I make any further comment on it."

Boston Police confirm that the man was never arrested.

Walsh said he was not yet sure whether the officer would be allowed to work during the investigation.

In a statement, the ACLU of Massachusetts said this incident "shows why Boston police need to join their colleagues in most other large cities in using body worn cameras, so neither members of the public nor the BPD would have to rely on bystander videos to understand situations like this, and to protect people on both sides of the badge."

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