An Arkansas police officer has been fired after he was captured on video beating a handcuffed inmate in the back of his patrol car.
Jonesboro Police Chief Rick Elliott fired Officer Joseph Harris on Friday, the day after Harris 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.
The department released the video footage on its YouTube page and announced the officer’s firing. “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.”
Harris Seen Punching and Elbowing the Inmate, Slamming Car Door Against His Head
Billy Lee Coram, the inmate in the back of the patrol car, is wearing a hospital gown and choking himself with a seatbelt wrapped 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 and had escaped the hospital. Harris had caught Coram and put him in his patrol car. Elliott said he will be referring the case to the local prosecutor and was putting together paperwork in the coming days to send to the prosecutor.
Harris Previously Suspended for Using Excessive Force, Also Named in Inmate’s Wrongful Death Lawsuit
Harris was suspended two years ago for using excessive force. In 2022, a video of Harris throwing a man to the ground outside a Jonesboro night club went viral on social media. JPD placed Harris on leave without pay and began an investigation into the “level of force used by the officers involved during the arrest.”
Harris is also named as a defendant in a wrongful death lawsuit filed in June over an inmate who died in the Craighead County jail this year.
