A sheriff in Tennessee fired an officer after a British newspaper published photographs that showed him choking a handcuffed college student until he lost consciousness, Reuters reports. The photographs published by the online edition of the Daily Mail showed an unidentified officer appearing to throttle 21-year-old Jarod Dotson, while two fellow officers handcuffed the student’s hands behind his back, after arresting him at a party near the University of Tennessee, in Knoxville. The student did not appear to show any sign of resistance, while the officer, Frank Phillips, 47, held him by the neck until he collapsed to his knees.
John Messner, the Knoxville photographer who took the pictures, described to the Mail how the officer then slapped Dotson around the head a few times before walking off. Knox County Sheriff Jimmy “J.J.” Jones said that Phillips was found by department investigators to have used excessive force during the arrest on Saturday night. “This incident provides a perfect example of why we are in the process of purchasing officer-worn body cameras (video and audio recordings) so incidents like this will be fully documented,” the sheriff said.