Police Shootings / Possible Abuse Threads [merged]

Two Alaska State Troopers have been charged with assault for pepper spraying, beating and ordering a dog to bite a man who they wrongly believed had a warrant out for his arrest in an allegation of police violence that the state’s top public safety authority called unprecedented.


Joseph Miller, 49, and Jason Woodruff, 42, were charged with fourth-degree assault, a misdemeanor, for beating 37-year-old Ben Tikka in Kenai, Alaska, according to charging documents filed this week.


After the incident, Tikka reported an open bite on his left arm, multiple fractures and lacerations on his triceps and head. The troopers mistook Tikka for his cousin, who has the same last name.


James Cockrell, commissioner of the Alaska Department of Public Safety, said in a news conference Thursday that he put both troopers on administrative leave and had been the one to refer their cases for a criminal investigation.


“I was totally sickened by what I saw,” he said, adding that they caused significant injuries. “I’ve been with this department for 33 years, and I’ve never seen any action like this before.”………

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/08/17/alaska-troopers-assault-wrong-man/