La Mesa Officer On Leave After Viral Arrest Video

LA MESA, CA — Police are reviewing allegations of misconduct, and one officer is on administrative leave, after a video went viral this week of an arrest at the Grossmont Trolley station in La Mesa.

The video was posted to Instagram Wednesday, and by Friday morning it had amassed more than 1.9 million views.

In the video, a police officer appears to push a black man down onto a bench multiple times before arresting the man with the help of other officers.

The video is captioned, in part, "Police Brutality in San Diego."

The La Mesa Police Department on Wednesday issued a statement about the incident, saying it immediately launched a review into its details.

The statement, in full, reads:

"The La Mesa Police Department is aware of a video circulating on social media depicting an interaction between a police officer and a citizen at the Grossmont Trolley Station yesterday. We immediately began a review of the incident to find out what happened.

"The La Mesa Police Department takes all allegations of misconduct very seriously and asks that any member of the public with information or video regarding this incident contact us at (619) 667-1400"

La Mesa Mayor, Mark Arapostathis told news station NBC San Diego the city is working to review the incident.

"The City takes these matters very seriously, and consequently, in conjunction with the City Manager’s and City Attorney’s offices, has already begun the appropriate steps forward to investigate this matter thoroughly and take all necessary actions," Arapostathis told the station.

The officer has been placed on leave pending the results of the investigation, NBC San Diego reports.

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Officer M Dages of La Mesa Police department attacks innocent civilian waiting for friends outside apartment #RipGeorgeFloyd @shaunking @_stak5_
A post shared by (@lemthurdy) on May 27, 2020 at 3:46pm PDT