New Orleans PD to review officer’s UOF shown in video
By: Emily Lane, NOLA Media Group
NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans Police Department’s investigative unit that probes uses of force on the public by NOPD officers is looking into the takedown of a woman who was handcuffed over the weekend as officers broke up a fight during French Quarter Festival, NOPD said Monday (April 15).
A video posted Saturday on Facebook shows what appears to be a white-shirted NOPD officer twice throwing a woman to the ground before other officers help him handcuff her near the intersection of North Peters and Bienville streets. The woman appears to hit the white-shirted officer during the struggle.
The New Orleans Advocate, which first reported on the video and internal investigation, identified the white-shirted officer as newly promoted 8th District Commander Octavio Baldassaro. Two law enforcement sources who were not authorized to speak confirmed Baldassaro is the white-shirted officer shown in the video.
