Surveillance footage at a Doc’s
Game Room in Honolulu shows Officer Vince Morre attacking two men after he
failed to find an eluding suspect at the business. He lobbed a stool at Jordan
Topinio’s head on his way out of the store without making an arrest. The
25-year-old was hospitalized with head injuries after the attack.
BY NICOLE HENSLEY
KHNL/KGMBHonolulu Police
Officer Vince Morre is shown kicking a man in the chest on his way out after
not finding the suspect he was looking for.
Two Hawaii cops are suspended
after allegedly kicking, slapping and throwing a chair at two men at a game
room.
Officer Vince Morre kicked a
bystander within seconds of walking through the door at Doc’s Game Room,
according to a video obtained by KHNL-TV, while hunting down an eluding
suspect.
The worst of the attack was
directed at 25-year-old Jordan Topinio, who was hospitalized with head injuries
after being kicked in the face twice and being knocked to the floor by a flying
chair during the Sept. 5 incident.
The Honolulu business was empty
of wrongdoers, much to Morre’s dismay, after the plain-clothed officers with
the district’s Crime Reduction Unit checked the bathroom, too.
KHNL/KGMBHonolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha
has suspended two officers after the video surfaced showing the beat down at a
game room.
Just before leaving
empty-handed, the now-suspended cop, shown with a police badge dangling from
his neck, lashed out at the man closest to him with a surprise punch, slap and
kick to the chest.
Just before Morre and his
partner, Officer Nelson Tamayori, left the business empty-handed, he turned his
attention back to Topinio and kicked him in the face again as he looks
passively down at the floor, the video shows.
Honolulu Police Department is
investigating the case of police brutality internally especially after the
video then shows Morre picking up a nearby stool and lobbing it right at
Topinio.
Officer Vince Morre is shown kicking and
hitting a bystander at a Honolulu game room on Sept. 5 while tracking down a
suspect.
His injuries required several
staples at a nearby hospital, defense attorney Myles Breiner told the Daily
News.
Breiner named one victim, but
not the second citing “concerns for his safety,” Breiner added.
The officer’s behavior is
“totally unacceptable,” Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha told KHNL-TV after
watching the video footage for the first time.
He suspended Tamayori for not stopping Morre
during the beat down and asked a reserve officer, who was also at the scene, to
retire, Breiner added.
The case has been referred to
the FBI and District Attorney’s Office in Hawaii.
nhensley@nydailynews.com
