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Graphic video obtained by FITSNews shows multiple South Carolina cops repeatedly punching an unarmed black man as he lay pinned to the pavement of a main thoroughfare in Anderson, S.C., all the while being mauled by a police K9.
The video, not even three minutes long, appears to capture the end of the July 16 arrest of Tavaris Richardson, 30, who fled from deputies with the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO) during the service of a felony domestic violence warrant.
While most of the deputies involved remain unnamed as of this publication, ACSO’s “unapproved draft” of the incident report, written by ACSO Master Deputy David Stipe, notes the arrest was effectuated by the agency’s Fugitive Investigations Unit (FIU).
According to Stipe’s draft, the chain of events that ended with Richardson bloodied on the pavement unfolded in a matter of minutes, beginning shortly before noon when he left his hotel room at the Horizon Inn and Suites on N. Main Street.
Moments after stepping outside, he was purportedly met by ACSO Detective Elijah Pierce who “challenged” him at gunpoint, called him by name and told him he was under arrest.
“Richardson immediately fled on foot running from law enforcement holding something tightly clinched in his fist,” Stipe’s draft states. “K9 ‘Chapo’ was able to make contact with Richardson just before N. Main Street, knocking him down.”
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Despite the Belgian Malinois bowling Richardson to the concrete, per additional angles of the incident provided to FITSNews, he’s recorded struggling back to his feet with the K9 still latched to his white T-shirt.
Twisting against the dog’s hold, he drops the item he’d been clutching: a “clear plastic baggy” that deputies later determined held roughly 7.3 grams of methamphetamine.
As for Richardson’s takedown, it spills into oncoming traffic on N. Main Street, where at least five tactically outfitted officers converge, bear down and pin him face-first on the roadway. Both the video and Stipe’s draft appear to agree on that sequence.
“Multiple commands were given to him to ‘stop resisting’ and to ‘put his hands behind his back,’ however he refused,” Stipe’s increasingly dubious account alleges. “Richardson had [another] bag clinched tightly in his fist while reaching under him.”
As officers piled on top of him and ripped the second bag from his grip, “several white rock like substances” flew, according to Stipe’s account. The scattered contents, deputies later determined, amounted to approximately 9.7 grams of crack cocaine.
Amid that onslaught, bystander video captures what Stipe’s draft leaves out entirely: some 17 closed-fist punches to Richardson’s face, head and body.
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“THEY’RE BEATING THE SHIT OUT OF HIM…”
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The video, recorded from inside a Waffle House adjoining the Horizon Inn, picks up with eight officers converging on Richardson. Chapo is counted among them.
Within the ensuing seconds, at least three of these officers appear to deliver a combined 12 blows across Richardson’s body as the K9 mauls at him.
“Even while being bitten with the K9 he continued to fight with deputies,” Stipe’s draft contends.
An off-camera Waffle House patron, however, undercuts that claim in real time.
“I don’t understand how they expect somebody not to move when a dog’s biting them,” they say on the recording.
It’s not until over a minute into the same video that Chapo’s handler, believed to be ACSO Master Deputy Darius Foster, is seen calling his dog off. It does little to defuse the situation, however, as an idle officer picks up where the K9 left off and grabs Richardson by the legs.
Seconds later, one of the officers who already struck Richardson lands two more blows to his head before appearing to grind his face into the asphalt. A fellow deputy then kneels on the suspect’s back, prompting the same officer to deliver three more strikes squarely to Richardson’s face.
“They’re beating the shit out of him,” a separate Waffle House patron says off camera. “Hitting him in the head. On the damn pavement!”
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As for what made it into ACSO’s initial paperwork, Stipe conveniently leaves out the part about Richardson receiving some 17 blows to his face and body, instead noting that he personally believed Richardson was “trying to gain access to a weapon.”
That weapon was never found.
But not before Richardson was rendered virtually lifeless, at which point two of the heavy-fisted deputies attempted to stand him up. Neither succeeded, so they instead resorted to dragging him across the pavement by his handcuffs.
According to booking records, Richardson was charged with resisting arrest, distribution of methamphetamine and manufacturing of cocaine. He was later transferred to Greenville County, where the felony arrest warrant that triggered this entire episode had originated.
As of this publishing, he remains incarcerated at the Greenville County Detention Center.
From behind bars, Richardson appears to have retained attorneys Stuart M. Axelrod and Tristan M. Shaffer of Axelrod & Associates, PA, out of Myrtle Beach, who are now suing ACSO for negligent hiring, negligent retention and failure to supervise and intervene during his arrest.
While the lawsuit’s initial filing (.pdf) did not specify a dollar amount, it not only underscores how shoddy policing can completely torch a criminal case, but reaffirms that taxpayers inevitably pay the price when officers cross the line.
As for ACSO, this is neither the first nor second nor third time its personnel have made headlines for the wrong reasons.
Details regarding Richardson’s arrest were first made public by the Journey Black Foundation.
This story may be updated.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Andrew Fancher is a Lone Star Emmy Award–winning journalist from Dallas, Texas. He joined FITSNews in 2023 after leaving an NBC affiliate, where he served as on-air talent. His reporting focuses on public corruption in South Carolina, with an emphasis on law enforcement misconduct and abuse of power.
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