Omaha police officer Bradley D Canterbury was fired after he beat up a suspect and then participated in a brutal, illegal retaliatory raid on the home of a citizen who’d video-recorded the incident. Canterbury was one of over 30 Omaha police officers who broke into a family home without a warrant intending to destroy mobile phone video evidence of his violent actions, and was one of six officers from that cohort who were fired for the beating.
Canterbury is the one in the video who seems to throw Octavius Johnson to the ground. Initially, four officers were fired. The other officers fired were James Kinsella and Justin A. Reeve and Sgt. Aaron Von Behren. Kinsella and Von Behren were both charged in connection with what investigators called a cover up.
Police Chief Todd Schmaderer fired Omaha police officers John D. Payne and Dyea L. Rowland this month for their roles in the incident.
Also this month, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on January 6th against the police department, Schmaderer and 32 officers. The ACLU says this case is the perfect storm of police misconduct. It wants the lawsuit to spark a change in police oversight and classes to better train officers on the street. Everyone named in the suit has 30-days to respond.
Omaha Police Officer to Return to Work After Being Fired for Rough Arrest [Lindsey Theis/KMTV]
(via Techdirt