Arkansas police officer fired after video shows him assaulting inmate in patrol car

*WARNING: Graphic video attached .

MEMPHIS, Tenn. ( WREG ) — A Jonesboro, Arkansas, police officer was terminated after he was caught on video assaulting an inmate handcuffed in the back of his patrol car, the Jonesboro Police Department announced.

On Friday, the department was informed of a complaint about a Thursday evening incident involving former Officer Joseph Harris.

“The serious nature of the complaint necessitated prompt action,” the department said in a Facebook post . “Following an internal review of the incident, it was determined that the officer involved, Joseph Harris, should be terminated effective immediately.”

The JPD said video of the incident was made public in the “interest of transparency.” The department also said it is “working through this as quickly as possible.”

Jonesboro Police Chief Rick Elliott fired Harris on Friday, the day after the officer was caught on his patrol car video punching, elbowing and slamming the car door on an inmate being transferred from a local hospital back to the county jail.

“I was just shocked and appalled by (Harris’) actions,” Elliott told The Associated Press on Monday. “Based on that conduct, I’m not going to have it and I’m not going put up with it, and immediately terminated him.”

A phone number was not listed for Harris, who had worked for the department for the past five years.

Billy Lee Coram, the inmate in the back of the patrol car, is wearing a hospital gown and choking himself with a seatbelt wrapped around his neck as the car is moving in the roughly 12-minute video. After the car pulls over, Harris opens the door and punches and elbows Coram several times in the face as he unwinds the belt.

Harris later slams the car door against Coram’s head. Elliott said he didn’t know what injuries Coram sustained from the beating. Coram was being held at the Craighead County jail Monday on escape charges and was wanted on warrants from out of state.

Coram had been taken to the hospital after he told jail staff he had ingested fentanyl, but then escaped.. Harris had caught Coram and put him in his patrol car.

The jail did not return a message Monday afternoon from The Associated Press, and no court date or attorney was listed for Coram.

Elliott said he would be referring the case to the local prosecutor and was putting together paperwork in the coming days to send to the prosecutor. The county prosecutor did not immediately return a call Monday from The Associated Press.

Elliott also said he had contacted the FBI’s Little Rock office about the incident and would ask the state to decertify Harris as a police officer.

“Wrong is wrong. There’s not really anything to investigate,” he said.

Harris had been suspended two years ago for using excessive force and is also a defendant in a wrongful death lawsuit filed in June over an inmate who died in the Craighead County jail this year.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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