The man who shot the amateur video of a Los Angeles policeman punching a black teenage suspect has been arrested as he prepared to give a television interview. Mr Mitchell Crooks was arrested outside the Los Angeles bureau of TV news channel CNN where he was due to give an interview about the Inglewood beating.
Meanwhile, the lawyer for the policeman suspended in the case said the 16-year-old suspect took action "that required that he be punched".
Witnesses outside the CNN office in Los Angeles said Mr Crooks was screaming as he was driven away by plainclothes officers.
Authorities said Mr Crooks was taken to the grand jury investigating the beating case. He had failed to appear before the jury earlier yesterday as scheduled.
Authorities said his arrest was unrelated to that case. The district attorney's office said Mr Crooks was arrested on at least two previous charges.
One was an outstanding warrant for petty theft with a prior conviction, an offence that does not allow for bail under California law. The other was for hit-and-run while driving under the influence.
The Los Angeles grand jury hopes to get the original video shot by Mr Crooks, Chief Deputy District Attorney Curt Livesay told a Los Angeles radio talk show on Wednesday.
Mr Crooks and Mr Livesay had a terse exchange on the show, with Mr Crooks saying he feared police were "coming after me because I shot the video".
The video shows Mr Donovan Jackson, handcuffed and being slammed onto a patrol car, then hit in the face by an officer.
No action has been taken against the other three Inglewood officers or the two sheriff's deputies who were at the scene.
"You cannot see what the subject is doing with his hands just prior to being hit in the face," Mr Barnett said. "It's reported that Jackson after being placed on the vehicle grabbed the testicles of the officer, and thereafter he was punched."
PA