BY TIM GHIANNI
Mon Apr 28, 2014 12:04am EDT
(Reuters) – A sheriff in Tennessee fired an officer after a British newspaper published photographs on Sunday that showed him choking a handcuffed college student until he lost consciousness.
The photographs published by online edition of the Daily Mail showed an unidentified officer appearing to throttle 21-year-old Jarod Dotson, while two fellow officers handcuffed the student’s hands behind his back, after arresting him at a party near the University of Tennessee, in Knoxville.
The student did not appear to show any sign of resistance, while the officer, later identified as 47-year-old Frank Phillips, held him by the neck until he collapsed to his knees.
John Messner, the Knoxville photographer who took the pictures, described to the Mail how the officer then slapped Dotson around the head a few times before walking off.
Knox County Sheriff Jimmy “J.J.” Jones said in a written statement that Phillips was found by department investigators to have used excessive force during the arrest on Saturday night.