BLYTHEVILLE, Ark. – The Blytheville Police Department has released hours of body camera footage from a November 19 arrest in which an injured suspect was left outside the Mississippi County Jail in his hospital gown.
Abbie Rumph spoke to WREG days after his arrest and said officers dragged him from a police car after jailers declined to book him due to him complaining of injuries.
Police had gone to arrest Rumph on a 2019 domestic battery charge when he hid in an attic and subsequently fell through the ceiling, then leapt from a window and ran across a field before surrendering.
While Rumph is being handcuffed, the body camera footage shows an officer with his knee on the back of Rump’s head for about 35 seconds before shifting his knee closer to Rumph’s shoulder where it remains another 11 seconds.
Rumph can be heard repeatedly saying he can’t breathe, to which an officer responds, “Shut up. You’ll be alright.” One officer can be heard saying, “Shouldn’t have run.”
“That is a lethal technique,” said activist Tony Hollis who says he’s been working to have these types of restraints banned.
The footage shows an officer take Rumph to the hospital to be checked out before taking him to jail.
But when they arrive at the jail, Rumph is still complaining of neck and back pain.
Blytheville Police Chief Ross Thompson declined WREG’s request for an interview, but he previously contended that jailers should have booked Rumph since the hospital had already cleared him to go to jail.
In the video, jailers insist police take Rumph back to the hospital at which point they remove him from the patrol car, place him on the ground and remove his handcuffs.
Throughout the encounter, Rumph screams and references his neck and back to which one officer remarks, “He’s supposed to be gangster, though.”
Rumph’s mother, Sheila, said she found the video difficult to watch.
“Yes, I might have been wrong with what I have done but I’m innocent until I’m proven guilty. But for you to take me out and throw me out like a dog and make all kind of sarcastic remarks,” she said.
In his interview with WREG, Rumph claimed a police captain told him, “I should have thrown you in the ditch.” That remark isn’t present in the video.
