Warning: The above video may be disturbing to some audiences. We have edited out curse words.
IDAHO SPRINGS, Colo. (KDVR) — New body camera footage was released Thursday after a former Idaho Springs, Colorado officer was fired for using a Taser on a 75-year-old man without warning.
The incident happened on May 30. Former officer Nicholas Hanning, 35, faces felony assault of an at-risk adult after investigators say he used a Taser on Michael Clark without cause after entering his apartment during an assault investigation.
Clark has been recovering since May 30 with multiple injuries after Hanning allegedly kicked, punched and tased him.
Hanning was fired on July 16.
Body Camera Footage
A condensed version of the body camera footage was released by Clark’s attorney, Sarah Schielke on July 22 (Warning: video contains graphic content). The unedited body camera video can be seen here.
Schielke shared a statement provided by her client, who has not watched the videos:
“How I was brutally attacked, and almost murdered… Has really affected me in a lot of
ways. The memory of how I was treated, and not just how I was treated by the police
force, but also then after that by the district attorney, like I was the aggressor, that has
severely affected me.Some people may wonder why I would be so set on the public
release of these videos, when releasing them means that everyone I know is going to
see me in my skivvies, stripped of my dignity, and assaulted in my own home.
But what the world will see in these videos is not me at my worst, but a police
department at their worst. I am a patriot. I love my country.There are a number of good people out there, of good police officers. These are not them. People like this should not be police. What they took from me that day, I can’t put into words. I’m going to do whatever it takes with what little time I have left to stop this from happening to anyone else ever again.”
After viewing the video, Schielke shared this statement:
“We knew it was going to be bad from the affidavit for Officer Hanning’s arrest. But that affidavit, it turns out, did no justice to the level of injustice seen on these videos. They need to be seen to be believed. Finally being able to view the videos has been vindicating for this family on some level, since they confirm all that Mr. Clark has said, but, seeing the horrors that they contain, after fighting for so long to get them, has been traumatic in its own right. The tragic, needless abuse of this man in his own home cannot be unseen. There have been a lot of tears and a lot of anger over these past few days as the family grieves and attempts to process all the perverse abuses of power seen on these videos.”