Prosecutors charged a Detroit police officer with manslaughter on Tuesday, accusing him of fatally punching a 71-year-old man during a confrontation.
The officer, Juwan Marquise-Alexander Brown, 29, has since been fired by the Detroit Police Department.
On Sept 1., Mr. Brown was sent to investigate a complaint of disorderly conduct against Daryl Vance, a Detroit resident, outside a bowling alley, according to prosecutors.
A “verbal confrontation” then escalated between the two men and the officer struck Mr. Vance in the face, causing the older man to fall and hit his head, the charges said. Medics transported Mr. Vance to a hospital. He died three weeks later.
The Wayne County medical examiner found that the cause of his death was blunt force trauma to the head, prosecutors said.
“Police officers frequently deal with citizens who are disorderly and verbally unpleasant,” said Kym Worthy, the Wayne County prosecutor, in a statement on Tuesday. “But the evidence in this case shows that the officer allegedly was the aggressor, and his actions went criminally beyond what was necessary in this situation.”
She added: “This behavior cannot be tolerated from our law enforcement.”
Mr. Brown was suspended the day after the altercation after the department reviewed police camera footage, the Detroit News reported. Detroit Police Chief James White told local media then that there were concerns that the officer did not “adequately de-escalate or disengage from the situation.”
On Tuesday, the Detroit Police Department said in a statement that Mr. Brown had been terminated “as a result of his actions,” on Sept. 1. If convicted, manslaughter carries a sentence of up to 15 years in prison.
Mr. Brown was planning to appeal that decision, the department said, but in the meantime would not be on police payroll or hold any law enforcement authority. He is set to appear before a Detroit court on Wednesday morning.
It was not immediately clear who was representing Mr. Brown in court.
A call to Fieger Law, a firm representing Mr. Vance’s family, on Tuesday evening was not immediately returned. The firm said in September while Mr. Vance was hospitalized that it planned to file a lawsuit against those responsible, the Detroit News reported.