Police have dropped all charges against the 19-year-old black man whom police said grew violent and resisted.
What We Know:
- Uwimana Gasito was arrested and charged with two misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct after police responded to a call outside of a 7/11 in East Lansing. Gasito and another man were shoving each other. Police say Gasito was inebriated and that the exchange was getting heated when they arrived. As more and more evidence emerged, the community demanded that the charges be dropped.
- Gasito maintains that East Lansing police had no cause to arrest him in the first place and used excessive force, which resulted in deep cuts to his forehead and a swollen eye.
- The East Lansing Police Department has now dropped all charges against Gasito after former Police Chief Larry Sparkes learned one of the officers involved was also involved in another excessive force complaint in December. The East Lansing Police Department has asked the Michigan State Police to conduct an investigation into their handling of the earlier incident.
- “We recognize that there are things we need to do to improve our internal review process and we are actively working to make necessary improvements. We apologize to the community for this oversight,” Sparkes said in a press release, reported WILX 10. “This remains a top priority for the police department and we are committed to being transparent with the public as we work through making these improvements.”
The officer accused of excessive force is now on paid administrative leave.
