Written by By Jack Jacobs, CNN Los Angeles
The incident happened on a softball field in Pueblo, Colorado.
For three minutes, a mother and her 4-year-old daughter watched as the officer, Jeffrey Kagel, repeatedly shocked a 65-year-old man with his taser.
“He fell on his butt twice and the power went out, so it went into full stun again,” the young girl told CNN.
“I hope he died,” she said.
A dashcam video and two cell phone videos of the incident were shared online and showed the physical extent of their man’s bruising and bleeding while Kagel repeatedly tasered him.
Forty-eight hours later, Kagel admitted to bringing the taser into his squad car and using it on the 65-year-old.
“I put my hands on the gentleman in a very painful way,” Kagel told Pueblo police’s head of Professional Standards shortly after the incident, according to a news release from the department
Kagel was arrested, then placed on administrative leave. He pleaded guilty to a single count of third-degree assault and received a 12-month deferred sentence. Kagel agreed to a one-year probation period and must participate in a yearlong mentoring program with the department’s crisis intervention officers.
Kagel was fired from the department in July, after the criminal case was resolved.
An internal investigation was also completed. The investigation discovered that Kagel used his taser on the 65-year-old man while attending a football game.
“The fact that police are supposed to be a safety net for the community has been eroded because some are abusing that power,” Pueblo police Chief Troy Miller said in the department’s news release.