Investigators are trying to figure out if police orders led to the beating of a University of Maryland student in March, when hundreds of students took to the streets after the school’s basketball team beat Duke.
John McKenna, 21, was among the students in the apparent “riot.” Video shows him skipping up towards several officers riding horses, before pausing.
The video then shows two police officers throwing him into a concrete wall and hitting him with their batons. A third officer joined them moments later.
According to The Washington Post, investigators have since examined e-mails and text messages sent by Prince George’s County police commanders at the scene.
Investigators are trying to determine whether orders from the commanders led to the beating and if police tried to cover it up afterwards.
Initially, McKenna was charged with assaulting police officers, but those charges were dropped after the video was released. The three officers in the video were all identified and remain suspended with pay.
The whole incident is being investigated by the state’s attorney’s office, with the help of the police department’s internal affairs division.
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During the street celebration/riot, 28 students were arrested. Police have since dropped charges against 22 of them.
