Dashcam footage released of California deputy repeatedly punching drunken suspect

A Southern California sheriff’s deputy was captured on dashcam video repeatedly punching a suspected drunken driver during an arrest that the officer’s bosses are defending.

Mohamed Sayem, 33, was parked in his Jeep outside the Corner Pocket Bar in Westminster, California, when Orange County Sheriff’s Deputies Michael Devitt and Eric Ota approached him in the early morning hours of Aug. 19, officials said.

The deputies were answering calls about Sayem being drunk behind the wheel, authorities said.

“Are you going to get out of the car?” Devitt can be heard asking the suspect.

“Don’t touch me like that?” Sayem said, slurring his words moments before it got physical.

The video, first made public on Thursday, then showed Devitt grabbing the seated Sayem, pulling him out and repeatedly punching the suspect before he fell to the asphalt. Some of the confrontation was obscured by the open driver side door.

When Sayem was cuffed on the ground, he said, “Are you going to shoot me?”

Sayem insists he’s the victim of police brutality and excessive force.

“You blew it,” Sayem’s defense lawyer, Scott Sanders, told NBC affiliate KNBC-TV. “You beat him up in a situation you didn’t need that level of force. The answer can’t be that Mr. Sayem pays the price.”

Devitt claimed that Sayem was uncooperative and touched him first, leading to the necessary use of force, a department spokeswoman said Friday.

“A review of the full video indicates that the deputy made every attempt to de-escalate the situation and provide the subject multiple opportunities to simply provide his identification,” according to a sheriff’s statement.

“The subject refused to do so and attempted to physically engage the deputy, during which the deputy used force appropriate for the situation to gain control of an uncooperative, assaultive and intoxicated person.”

Sayem has pleaded not guilty to resisting arrest and public intoxication.

“The deputy’s report is consistent with the video in its entirety, and charges were filed,” the sheriff said.

Both deputies are still on active duty.