DALLAS — Few people have seen the dashcam video of two Dallas police officers beating a man after a chase.
One city leader tells News 8 the images are so enraging that they could divide the community.
The officers are white; the cyclist is black.
The video is now in the hands of the FBI.
According to the police report, it all started when officers say they saw Andrew Collins driving his motorcycle on the sidewalk. The officers said he took off and they followed, but didn't chase him.
Sources tell News 8, however, that the dashcam video tells a different story.
"From what I have gathered, it's pretty damaging," said Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway.
Sources say the tape shows the officers chased Collins — even going the wrong way at times.
News 8 has also been told that at one point you can hear an officer on the recording saying, "Get close to him so I can beat the [expletive] out of him."
In a police report, the officers claim Collins wrecked out. But sources say the squad car struck Collins' motorcycle from behind, then the two officers got out of their cruiser and started hitting him with a baton and their fists, and the suspect was not resisting.
"It's something the City of Dallas and the Dallas Police Department will not tolerate under any circumstances," Caraway said.
Collins is African-American. The officers are white, but their pictures are not public record and were not provided by the police department.
"I don't want people to think, 'Here is a black man and let's go beat him up' — that we have that kind of mentality on the force," Caraway said.
But Caraway said the reality is the tape will be explosive, and may fuel racial tensions. "The race war, so to speak, will always exist," he said.
The FBI has been called in to review possible civil rights violations. Federal agents will look at race, the officers' motives, their actions, and whether they acted with malice.
The Dallas Police Department has declined to release the dashcam tape because the case remains under investigation.
But the agency has released tapes in the past in cases where officers were under criminal investigation.
E-mail rlopez@wfaa.com
