Charges Filed Against Officer in Beating Case

A police officer captured on videotape beating a man in custody was charged Friday with assault with a deadly weapon.

Officer Edward James Parnell III had been relieved of duties with pay after the beating Wednesday.

He surrendered to police late Friday after an arrest warrant was issued, Ft. Worth Police Chief Thomas Windham said. He expected Parnell to be released without bail.

The district attorney’s office must decide whether to take the case to a grand jury, the chief said.

“I don’t think there was any gray area in this situation,” Windham said before charges were filed.

Aggravated assault with a deadly weapon can bring a prison sentence ranging from 2 to 10 years, plus a fine of $1,000.

Parnell had arrested Ernest Alvin Anderson on suspicion of car theft and was driving him to a police station when Anderson kicked out a rear window of the patrol car and tried to jump out on Interstate 30.

Parnell stopped the car, removed Anderson from it and was videotaped striking the suspect 28 times with a baton. A woman videotaped the beating from a home near the highway.

The woman gave the tape to a television station, whose broadcast of it was reminiscent of the March 3 Los Angeles incident in which law officers beat speeding suspect Rodney G. King.

Unlike the beating in Los Angeles, which involved a black suspect and white police officers, both Parnell and Anderson are black.

Parnell, on advice from an attorney, refused to give police a statement. Police interviewed an unidentified Explorer Scout who rode in Parnell’s car as an observer. The Scout is shown in the video assisting Parnell in restraining the suspect.

Windham refused to discuss details of that interview. Scouts occasionally ride with officers as observers as part of a recruitment program, Lt. Alvin Allcon said.

Anderson, 21, was treated at a hospital for cuts and bruises before being jailed.

He was released from the Tarrant County Jail after posting $2,500 bond Friday morning.