By Steve Neavling
Ticklethewire.com
A day after the FBI announced it was launching a criminal investigation into the brutal police beating and tasering of a black man stopped for jaywalking in North Carolina, the county’s district attorney filed felony assault charges against the white officer accused of using excessive force.
Asheville Police Officer Chris Hickman, who resigned following the bloody beating, was arrested Thursday on charges of felony assault by strangulation and misdemeanor assault inflicting serious injury and communicating threats, USA Today reports.
Prosecutors say Hickman beat, chocked and used a stun gun on Johnnie Rush, 33, of Asheville, after he was stopped on Aug. 24 for allegedly jaywalking.
Hickman posted a $10,000 unsecured bond and was free of jail at 8:45 p.m. Thursday.
The FBI’s investigation is expected to focus on potential civil rights violations.
A body camera affixed to Hickman showed him punching and chocking Rush, who could be heard multiple times saying he could not great breathe.
FBI agents from the Charlotte office interviewed Rush in January.
