A police officer in the US state of Alabama has been arrested and is under investigation by the FBI after he threw an elderly man from India to the ground, leaving him temporarily paralyzed.
Officer Eric Parker from Madison, Alabama was fired on Thursday and charged with assault for throwing 57-year-old Sureshbhai Patel to the ground during a morning walk near his son’s home.
The brutal incident, which was recorded from inside a patrol vehicle, left Patel severely injured and required surgery to relieve pressure on his spinal cord.
On Thursday, Patel filed a lawsuit against the city of Madison and the white officer who assaulted him, alleging he was treated violently because of his dark skin, according to his attorney.
Madison Police Chief Larry Muncey apologized to Patel and his family at a news conference on Thursday and said the FBI was investigating to see if police violated the victim’s civil rights due to his race.
Patel’s son, Chirag Patel, , who arrived in the United States a decade ago to study engineering, blamed the police for escalating the incident, not his father.
“He was just walking on the sidewalk as he does all the time,” said Chirag. “They put him to the ground.