Countywide : Probe Centers on Tape of Officer, Suspect

A motorcycle officer who appears on videotape to be striking a prone bank robbery suspect is under investigation by the Anaheim Police Department, an official confirmed Wednesday.

The arrest was videotaped Tuesday by an NBC crew after a robbery at the Bank of America on 17th Street in Santa Ana.

Witnesses said the three armed robbers fled in two cars. Officers from several jurisdictions chased them at speeds of up to 100 m.p.h. One chase ended in Downey and the other in Chino.

In Downey, several police cars and an Anaheim motorcycle officer who had joined the chase surrounded Marcellus Cox, 25, of Los Angeles, as an NBC helicopter crew broadcast the scene live at 4:45 p.m. After Cox was pulled from his station wagon and placed on the ground, the motorcycle officer appears to strike him.

Anaheim Police Lt. Marc Hedgpeth said: “We are dissecting the video and interviewing all people present on the scene to find out exactly what happened.”

The motorcycle officer, whom Hedgpeth declined to identify, has not been interviewed yet, Hedgpeth said.

“We don’t know from him what his reasoning was, what he was thinking,” Hedgpeth said.

Results of the investigation will be forwarded to Police Chief Jimmie Kennedy, who will decide “whether there was anything inappropriate” in the officer’s actions, Hedgpeth said.

The two other suspects, identified as Trayvonne Deshun Mitchell, 20, and Marlin Lamont Brown, 22, both of Los Angeles, were stopped on the eastbound Pomona Freeway in Chino.

Three “simulated weapons” and an unknown amount of cash were recovered from the cars, according to Sgt. Don Robertson of the Santa Ana Police.

The three, whom Robertson said were members of a Los Angeles gang, were booked into Orange County Jail on suspicion of bank robbery.