INDIANAPOLIS — IMPD Chief Randal Taylor has identified four officers involved in the controversial arrest of two female protesters downtown.
Ivore Westfield and Rachel Harding said they were heading home from protesting on May 31 when an officer told Westfield she was under arrest and grabbed her.
Video shows Westfield react to the male officers contact and that's when the encounter escalated with Harding voicing her concerns to the group of officers making the arrests.
Harding said that's when she too was taken into custody. Video shows an officer pushing her to the ground during the encounter.
"The officer let go of me to start hitting her with a baton," Harding said. "At that point I bent down to pick up my phone to record and asked why are you doing this to her because I have never seen anything like this in my life."
Friday afternoon, Taylor released the names of the four officers involved in the incident. They include Sgt. David Kinsey, a 20-year veteran, Ofc. Conrad Simpson, an 18-year veteran of IMPD, Ofc. Johnathan Horlock, a five-year veteran and Ofc. Nathaniel Schauwecker, an eight-year veteran.
Kinsey's personnel file from IMPD shows he received a one-day suspension for a violation of the department's rules and regulations in April 2004 and a written reprimand for a violation in November of that same year. The nature of the violations is not known at this time.
None of the other officers involved had violations listed in their discipline file.
Westfield and Harding have filed a lawsuit against the officers, who were previously only identified by their rank in the department, saying their 4th and 14th Amendment rights were violated during the arrest.
The lawsuit claims Kinsey was the officer who became aggressive with Westfield, putting his entire body on hers and moving her arms into an unnatural, painful position. Then, the lawsuit alleges the sergeant instructed another officer to "hit her." At that time, one officer launched pepper ball rounds at Westfield, and two others began hitting her with their batons — striking her at least six times. She fell to the ground and one officer held her head and neck with a baton and put her in handcuffs, the lawsuit says.
The Marion County Prosecutor's Office told 13News Friday their investigation is still pending.