Guard Fired After Assault on Inmate

A Charleston County jail officer has been fired is now facing a criminal probe after video captured him body-slamming a female inmate in the jail's booking area.

Sheriff Al Cannon has requested the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division investigate the Feb. 25 incident, according to a department news release. Officer Jonathan Lewis, a five-year department employee, had been on leave since Feb. 27, but was terminated April 6 for violating department policy.

"After a review of the incident the Sheriff’s Office requested that SLED conduct an investigation, which is continuing, to determine if criminal charges are warranted," said Major James Brady, the sheriff's spokesman.

The video shows Lewis encounter an unidentified female inmate in the jail's booking area. There's a conversation, Lewis moves the woman with some force, the woman resists and then Lewis appears to lifts the woman and then throw her to a tile-covered cement floor.

Brady didn't identify the suspect involved in the incident.