Video shows cop kicking a suspect in the head

An El Monte police officer is seen on TV news footage kicking a car chase suspect in the head Wednesday after the suspect appears to surrender.

Video from KTTV Channel 11 News and KNBC-TV Channel 4 News shows the incident at the end of a car chase that wound through the San Gabriel Valley, ending in a collision in Pico Rivera. The suspect, whom authorities later identified as 23-year-old Richard Rodriguez of El Monte, jumped out of his car and ran.

He eventually stopped and dropped to the ground on his stomach, with his hands flat to the ground above his head. The officer ran up to Rodriguez and kicked him on the side of the head.

That officer appears to high-five another officer after the suspect was handcuffed.

Lt. Chuck Carlson of the El Monte Police Department said his officers made the arrest, and the internal affairs department is investigating the incident. Carlson said internal affairs will review video of the incident and also take statements from officers.

Carlson said Rodriguez, who was a parolee at large, had served time in state prison for an unspecified drug charge and was a member of the El Monte Flores street gang.

Rodriguez was taken to Greater El Monte Community Hospital. It’s unclear whether his injuries were sustained by an earlier car crash or from the blow to the head.

The pursuit began about 1:35 p.m. Wednesday near the intersection of Dufree Avenue and Poinsettia Avenue when police attempted to make a traffic stop on the driver of a Toyota Corolla who authorities said had failed to yield, El Monte police officials said.

The vehicle sped off, leading officers on a chase over local freeways then onto surface streets in Whittier before coming to an end 40 minutes later when the car crashed into a vehicle parked in the 5000 block of Church Street in Pico Rivera.

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ari.bloomekatz@latimes.com

andrew.blankstein@latimes.com