Criminal Probe Launched in Alleged Student Beating by San Jose Police

San Jose, CA (AHN) – The San Jose Police Department has launched a criminal investigation into allegations that officers used excessive force while arresting a 20-year-old university student from Vietnam.

Four officers responded to a call on Sept. 3 about a man threatening a roommate with a knife. They took Phuong Quang Ho, a math major at San Diego State University, into custody using a baton and a Taser because of a “a difficult time gaining the cooperation of the suspect,” according to the San Jose police department. The student was brought to a hospital before being charged with brandishing a weapon and resisting arrest.

Video of the officers while they were at Ho’s apartment that night, taken by one of the student’s roommates using a cell phone, was made public by the San Jose Mercury News last week and has been posted on YouTube. It shows grainy footage of Ho screaming while being struck multiple times with a baton and being shocked with a Taser.

In the video, Ho is lying on his back on the floor and appears to be unarmed. Mercury News reports that at least one of the baton strikes seems to have occurred when the student was handcuffed.

Ho told the San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday that police could not understand his accent and went into his room to look for identification. He had followed an officer to the bedroom but was pushed back. His eyeglasses fell and when he tried to pick them up, an officer hit him in the back.

San Jose Police said they immediately launched a criminal investigation into the actions of its officer after receiving the video from the Mercury News. The District Attorney’s Office will review the case when the probe is completed, and an administrative investigation will be conducted by its Internal Affairs Unit.

The four officers have been put on leave. Their names were not released in a police department statement but the two who were captured on video using weapons on Ho are identified in local reports as Kenneth Siegel and Steven Payne Jr.

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