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-Akron, OH.
-July 01, 2023.

Two Akron police officers are being investigated for their use of force after video circulating online shows a man being punched multiple times in the face by the officers during an arrest Saturday.

In videos on social media, which have been viewed more than 10,000 times, 31-year-old Jordan Ely Sr. is seen being punched three times by Akron police while they arrest him July 1 with his child in the back of his car.

Just before 7 p.m. Saturday, officers performed a registration check on a vehicle with a temporary tag and learned the plate was expired with active warrants for Ely linked to it.

Police said officers lost sight of the vehicle before finding it parked in the lot of a Family Dollar in the 900 block of Copley Road with Ely standing next to it.

Police body-camera footage shows Ely walking back to the driver-side door, turning around and stepping backward as the two officers approach him.

“What’s up, man?” an officer asks Ely seconds before he is tackled to the ground by police.

“Please sir, please don’t do this to me,” Ely is heard saying to the officers in the police footage. Officers instructed Ely to put his hands behind his back while he was lying on his back. At one point, an officer’s knee is on Ely’s left shoulder while the patrolman instructs him to put his hands behind his back.

“Hands behind your back, do it now, stop resisting,” Ely is instructed while he’s laying in the parking lot. Ely repeatedly tells the officers he can’t.

The body camera footage is obscured for approximately 60 seconds while the officers handcuff Ely.

Several bystanders took video of the arrest and posted it on social media. A 26-year-old woman who did not want to be identified but took one of the videos circulating online said the arrest started as “a normal traffic stop” and escalated within seconds.

“He’s trying to sit up a little bit so you can get off his arm. He’s trying to move the arm behind him, and (the officers) try to snatch it back,” the Akron resident who wishes to remain anonymous said. “He’s screaming…it didn’t seem like he was really putting up too much of a serious fight.”

In the videos shared online, Ely is seen punched twice in the face and once in the back of the head while officers try to handcuff him. Bystanders can be heard telling Ely not to move.

“Officers punched him in the face while his left arm is still tucked up under his body,” the unidentified woman said in an interview.

“Ely did not comply, and officers continued to try to separate his hands to safely handcuff the suspect. During the 2-minute struggle to get Ely into custody, strikes were used in addition to the physical grappling,” police said in a statement Monday.

Once in a seated position, Ely screams “no” repeatedly while blood drips from his mouth. EMS was called to the scene for an evaluation, police said.

While medics attend to Ely, he told officers he “wasn’t trying to fight.”

“Well, your tags are expired, man. You got a bunch of warrants,” an officer replied. “If you just listened to us, none of this would have happened.”

“I’m sorry…I was just scared,” Ely said.

Ely was charged in Akron Municipal Court with misdemeanor resisting arrest and obstruction of official business, as well as felony drug abuse after police searched his vehicle and found a baggie with white powder that field-tested positive for fentanyl.

A small child identified as Ely’s son was in the vehicle while he was arrested by officers and was later released to a family member.

In a statement, Police Chief Steve Mylett said the incident will be investigated and then reviewed by the Akron Police Auditor and the Citizens’ Police Oversight Board.

“This police department takes every matter involving an APD employee and a use of force very seriously,” he said. “The use of force will be measured against the ‘objectively reasonable’ standard as well as the totality of the circumstances.”

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