COURT HOUSE – No charges will be filed against a Wildwood police officer seen on video punching a man outside a pizzeria while attempting to arrest him, according to media reports.
The Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office probed the July 12 incident after the video began circulating on social media. After the investigation, the Prosecutor’s Office determined no laws were broken by the officer who, along with other officers, was breaking up a brawl at the pizzeria, located on the 3700 block of Pacific Avenue, in Wildwood.
In an Aug. 24 video from the Prosecutor’s Office (below), detailing the investigation, the man can be seen resisting arrest. Several camera angles, from an officer’s body camera and a security camera, were shown in an attempt to fully display the incident.
Sgt. Aaron Sykes, of the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office, stated, in the video, that officers repeatedly told the unidentified man he was under arrest, demanding compliance to officers’ orders. The man also elbowed an officer in the chest before an officer hit him in the face, Sykes stated. The man responded by hitting the officer in the lower jaw, which prompted the officer to punch him seven to eight times.
An internal investigation by the Wildwood Police Department remains ongoing, Cape May County Prosecutor Jeffery Sutherland stated.
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