Baltimore, MD – Bodycam video was released just ahead of the start of the jury trial of a Baltimore police officer charged with first degree assault (video below).

Baltimore Police Officer Kevin Battipaglia was indicted by a grand jury in March for an incident that occurred on-duty on Dec. 24, 2017, WBFF reported.

“We go to clear this corner. They ran. I chased one of them down, and when I was running because I had my stick in my hand already, so when I was running, I don’t even remember, Sergeant,” Officer Battipaglia told an official who arrived on the scene just after the altercation occurred.

Initially, attorneys for the suspect told police that he was just walking down the street when Officer Battipaglia suddenly hit him over the head with his department-issued baton (espantoon), knocking him to the ground.

However, the officer’s bodycam told a very different story, and showed that several suspects were fleeing from police.

The officer’s bodycam began just as he got out of his vehicle, and showed he had an espantoon in his right hand.

The video showed that a group of men standing on the corner began running away even before Officer Battipaglia got out of his car.

In the video, the officer chased a man wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt through a parking lot.

The fleeing man ran up to a black sedan that was leaving the parking lot, and then suddenly turned and fled in the opposite direction.

In the video, it appeared that the suspect, later identified as 21-year-old Darrian Carr, turned and ran back toward Officer Battipaglia, and that’s when he was struck by the officer’s espantoon.

Both men were moving at full speed, and the bodycam doesn’t make it clear whether Officer Battipaglia hit the subject intentionally.

Carr dropped to the ground when he was hit, and the officer stopped a couple of steps later and turned around, as if to see what had happened.

In the video, it looked as though Officer Battipaglia walked over to Carr and bent down to check on him.

When his sergeant arrived on the scene, the officer explained what had happened, and his sergeant told him to stop talking and head back to the station, according to WBFF.

Four months later, Maryland State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby pursued an indictment against Officer Battipaglia, a five year veteran of the Baltimore police force.

The officer was suspended without pay and initially also charged with misconduct in office, the Baltimore Sun reported.

Despite the charges against the officer, the prosecutors continued to charge Carr with gun possession.

This indicates that prosecutors acknowledge that Officer Battipaglia had a lawful reason to detain and arrest Carr, but that they believe his use of force against the armed suspect was unnecessary.

Carr entered an Alford plea on the gun possession charge, WBFF reported. An Alford plea means that the defendant does not admit guilt, but acknowledges the prosecution has enough evidence to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Watch video of the incident below: