Purdue police reviewing white officer's arrest of Black man

Purdue University police are reviewing an officer's use of force during the arrest of a Black man last week on the school's campus in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Entertainment website TMZ reported that cellphone video of the arrest appears to show a white officer with an elbow pressed against the neck and face of a Black man he had pinned to the ground in the snow.

A woman recording the incident yells that the officer is hurting her boyfriend. She taps the officer, and he responds by warning her he will use his Taser on her if she does it again, TMZ said.

Purdue University Police Chief John Cox said in a statement Wednesday that the officer arrested the man Friday following a call from a third party who said “it appeared a woman was being held against her will.”

The statement did not say if the man was charged or for how long he was detained. It is unclear if the man or the woman who shot the video are students at Purdue.

Internal reviews are conducted whenever an officer uses force during an arrest, the police department said.

The investigation will “include input from all witnesses to the arrest and take into account all available evidence, including video from officers’ body-worn cameras and statements from the students involved,” the department said. It said no one was hurt in the arrest.