Baltimore Man Sues Police After Videotape Shows An Unprovoked Attack By Officer

bs-md-ci-police-suit-20140915-00210710945_593771287397979_8231406189727835408_nThere is now a lawsuit filed seeking damages in the beating of Kollin Truss by Baltimore police, as shown vividly by the video below released by this attorney. The video is highly disturbing and shows Officer Vincent E. Cosom striking Truss without any apparent provocation and then followed by other officers.

Officer Vincent E. Cosom argued before the arrest in the early hours of June 15 outside a liquor store. However, a woman with Truss is seen separating the two and leading Truss away. Truss continued to walk away but police clearly decided to arrest him. Cosom in his report said that he twice asked Truss to leave the area but that Truss answered with a profanity and said “I’ll see you when I get outside.” Cosum said that Truss “pushed the female with open hands three times” and that Truss He adopted a fighting stance and clenched a fist. He wrote in his report: “Me and the male got into a physical altercation due to me being in fear of my safety, and I received a punch to the body.”

However, the video below shows Truss had a bag in one hand and the woman was holding his other arm as they paused near a bus stop. Cosom stepped around a group of bystanders before attacking Truss.

Cosom, a six-year veteran, is named in the lawsuit.

Truss was hit with a series of charges — a pattern that we have seen in past abusive arrests where charges are piled on (creating pressure for a plea and discouraging any lawsuit). Notably, the officers were denied booking until they took Truss to the hospital. Later, prosecutors dropped all charges.

Later however investigators concluded that Truss’s injuries were the result of his felling and they cleared the other officers. There is no mention of what these officers reported. We often see in these cases that there is a rarely any attention to the obligation of officers to come forward to report abuse or attention to the lack of any contradiction from officers (with the narrative of the central officer) in documented cases of abuse.

Cosom remains on duty.

Source: Baltimore Sun

30 thoughts on “Baltimore Man Sues Police After Videotape Shows An Unprovoked Attack By Officer”

  1. #name is numb, dumb, a bum and the sum of all scum.
    Since this person’s cranium consists of nothing but a vacuum, I
    suggest Jon Turley render name’s comments mum.This commenter’s lameness is certainly not blameless. The blog would better served if were it “nameless”.

  2. Re Barkin Dog:

    A. Who is going to give you your pretext “one punch” with a rifle pointed at his head (video equipped or otherwise)? B. Pointing (let alone shooting) a cop in the presence of other cops is commonly known as “suicide by cop”.

    Good luck with all of the above.

  3. This is why God made rifles. If the person taking the video had a video/rifle device like the one’s being sold on Amazon, then he/she could have shot the cop after he threw the first punch. The device is sold with the tag: One Punch and You Are Good To Go. One can not buy the ammo for the gun on Amazon though.

  4. “Truss was hit with a series of charges — a pattern that we have seen in past abusive arrests where charges are piled on (creating pressure for a plea and discouraging any lawsuit).”

    Thank you for finally pointing out this tactic.
    It’s reprehensible and IMHO has become standard operating procedure. (at least were I live)

    Police arrest any any whim nowadays.

  5. Something happened in the store that got the cop’s adrenaline flowing. He’s very confrontational and get into Tuss’s “space” seemingly looking to get ever so slightly “bumped” (read assaulted) . You can tell he’s “achin’ to do some breakin’ “. He doesn’t jus push the girlfriend away at 1:29 he shoves her away, clearing the deck for action and it appears to me his hand movement are like a dare… Come on big boy do something. Fortunately,there are some cooler heads and things appear to be going to be okay. Why the cop followed him and the girl friend I don’t know except that the black cop is still smokin’. Perhaps, what has caused the glowing ember of “discontent” to flare up is that he has missed his opportunity to put a beating on the hapless drunk back at the door way and the opportunity for an easy beat down is going to slip away. I’d be interested in his “history” as a police officer. Did Officer Cosom, a Black Officer find Mr. Tuss, a Black man in a drunken condition in public an embarrassment not only to Tuss but to Cosom himself and therefore should be punished? Something really, really PROVOCATIVE occurred in the mind of Cosmos because he went momentarily wild. The third cop almost got cold-cocked – I wonder how that would have been reported‽ The aphorism “The former slave makes the most brutal taskmaster.” was not conceived in a vacuum,

  6. Being a cop today might just be the worst job in the world. Your dammed if you do and your dammed if you don’t

  7. They just need to enforce laws on cops like they do regular citizens. I think cops need to get REGULARY PISS TESTED. Yes pee. Cause it’s easy to tell someone else to follow the law but what r u guys doing behind closed doors that’s provoking rage?

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