Prosecutors charged a former Detroit police officer with manslaughter on Tuesday, accusing him of fatally punching a 71-year-old man during an on-the-job confrontation, the New York Times reports. “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.”
On Sept 1., Brown was sent to investigate a complaint of disorderly conduct against Daryl Vance, a Detroit resident, outside a bowling alley. A “verbal confrontation” then escalated between the two men and the officer struck Vance in the face, causing the older man to fall and hit his head. Medics transported Vance to a hospital but 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. Brown was suspended the day after the altercation after the department reviewed police camera footage.