VIDEO: Brooklyn Police Beat Alleged Pizza Thief

A surveillance video obtained by the New York Daily News shows Brooklyn resident Thomas Jennings taking a harsh beating during a July 7 arrest at a Bed-Stuy bodega.

Although the video has no audio, the visuals are disturbing.

Jennings appears to be arguing with one cop, identified by the Daily News as Officer Lenny Lutchman, but not physically resisting arrest. His hands are held high in the air when the other cop, identified as Officer Pearce Martinez, lunges toward him and punches him repeatedly in the head.

As the officers bend Jennings over the bodega counter, they continue to jab their batons into his back.

“I didn’t ever know it was coming,” Jennings tells the Daily News.

He says his eyebrow required multiple stitches after the beating. (A booking photo shows his right eye swollen shut.)

An NYPD spokesperson tells Patch that the incident is under review by the Internal Affairs Bureau.

The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office is also reportedly investigating cops’ use of force.

Patch has contacted both the D.A.’s Office and Jennings’ attorney, Amy Rameau, for details on any upcoming legal action.

“It’s horrendous what they did to him,” Rameau tells the Daily News. “He had his hands up. He didn’t pose a threat to anyone in that store. It was an absolute use of excessive force.”

The events leading up to Jennings’ arrest on the night of July 7 are not entirely clear. According to the Daily News story, an employee at New York Fried Chicken a few blocks away accused Jennings and an unidentified friend of stealing two slices of pizza. So the NYPD tracked the pair down at a store on Bainbridge Street, where this video was shot.

Jennings is a rapper in the Crown Heights crew Been Family. He goes by the moniker Sen’Tekk. We’ve reached out to him for more on his side of the story.