A Louisiana trooper who bashed a Black man’s head with a flashlight and tased and punched him during a fatal arrest portrayed himself as a victim to investigators, according to newly released audio.
Louisiana Master Trooper Chris Hollingsworth bragged about beating “the ever-living f—-” of Ronald Greene in 2019. More than a year later, he told internal affairs he did it because he feared for his life as a video of the incident looped in the background.
“I was scared,” Hollingsworth during the two-hour recorded interrogation interview made public by The Associated Press. “He could have done anything once my hold was broke off him — and that’s why I struck him.”
Investigators grilled him about the apparent inconsistencies.
Hollingsworth was among a group of troopers captured on body camera video beating and dragging a bloodied Greene until he went limp.
State police initially told Greene’s family that he died in a car crash until state police released the footage in 2020. During the violent arrest, Greene pleaded with the troopers, “I’m your brother! I’m scared! I am scared.”
Greene’s family has accused authorities of repeated cover-ups.
No one has been charged for Greene’s injuries and death sustained in the May 2019 arrest. However, it has prompted a federal investigation and legislative review. Hollingsworth’s September 2020 internal affairs interview could not be used to prosecute him.
He died in a single-person car crash into a guardrail six days later after learning he was fired.
“I wasn’t trying to use deadly force against him,” Hollingsworth told investigators in an edited AP video featuring snippets of the interview. “I only wanted to free my arm.”
That was a far cry from what Hollingsworth told another officer on the phone after the arrest. The call was answered picked up on his body camera that he reportedly tried to withhold from investigators. At some point, Hollingsworth also turned off the camera.
“I beat the ever-living f— out of him, choked him and everything else trying to get him under control,” Hollingsworth said with his uniform dappled with Greene’s blood. “All of a sudden he just went limp. … I thought he was dead.”
