Police punch Hispanic man already pinned to ground—22 times.

Witnesses say man was punched repeatedly while pinned during Auburn police arrest.

Officer placed on administrative leave after video shows strikes in roadway—witnesses disagree on how much the man was resisting

A shirtless man was lying in the roadway as an Auburn police officer knelt over him and repeatedly struck toward his face and head. Traffic passes nearby as the officer continues to hold the man down.

In the 59-second clip provided, one officer is clearly visible over the man for much of the encounter. The video doesn’t show the full lead-up or establish what happened before recording began.

The incident happened Wednesday, Oct. 28, near 3624 Auburn Way N, by a Public Storage facility between Doxon Toyota and Rairdon’s Nissan. Auburn police said officers were dispatched at about 3:15 p.m. after reports that a man was running in and out of traffic and trying to get into passing vehicles.

Police said the first officer arrived and gave commands that the man didn’t follow. The officer used a taser while trying to get the man to comply, and a physical struggle followed as the officer tried to handcuff him.

It took four officers to control and handcuff the man, the department said. Police said he kept screaming and resisting after being handcuffed, and fire personnel were called to help calm him.

The department’s first statement said the incident was still under review. In a later update, Auburn police said the officer involved had been placed on administrative leave while the use of force is investigated.

Police said the man didn’t appear to have serious injuries but was taken to a hospital for evaluation. The officer was also taken to a hospital.

Neither person has been publicly identified, and police haven’t announced charges or released body-camera footage.

The video starts during the restraint, after the man is already on the pavement. The officer is positioned over him in the street and repeatedly swings downward toward his head and face.

Cars continue to pass in the next lane. The recording appears to have been made from across the road, and poles and passing vehicles sometimes block parts of the scene.

In a follow-up discussion, the witness said the man had been tased, “stiffly hit the ground,” and struck his head on the asphalt. He said the officer got on top of him while trying to handcuff him, then began beating him as he resisted.

Bystanders describe both resistance and the head impact before the punches seen in the video.

Another witness said, “I counted 22 punches to the face without fighting back.”

KIRO Newsradio reporter Luke Duecy also reviewed the video and estimated it showed about 20 punches.

Those are viewers’ counts from the clip, not an official tally. The available video doesn’t show the moments before the man was tased, and its limited angle makes it hard to assess every movement during the restraint.

A separate post labeled “Police Response” and located at 3624 Auburn Way N showed emergency vehicles and paramedics near the scene.

The person who posted it said the vehicles looked like they were responding to an emergency, not a car crash.

The poster also shared what they described as an account from a dealership sales team: that someone had been in the roadway, possibly experiencing a mental-health episode, “maybe drug induced,” and jumping at or in front of cars before police restrained him and put him in an ambulance.

Police haven’t confirmed that secondhand account, and the cause of the man’s behavior isn’t publicly known.

Auburn police haven’t publicly addressed the number of strikes or released the full sequence.

KIRO Newsradio reported that Auburn police placed the officer on administrative leave and that the department was reviewing the use of force.

The report also noted that Washington State Patrol policy limits head strikes to certain situations, while pointing out that Auburn’s own policies—not WSP’s—will guide the department’s review.

This investigation follows several serious force cases involving Auburn officers over the past decade.

They involved different officers and separate events, and don’t determine what happened on Oct. 28.

In 2017, Auburn Officer Jeffrey Nelson shot and killed Isaiah Obet after releasing a police dog that bit him.

The city later agreed to pay Obet’s family $1.25 million to settle a civil-rights lawsuit. In 2019, Nelson fatally shot Jesse Sarey during an attempted arrest.

A jury convicted Nelson of murder in 2024, and he was sentenced to more than 16 years in prison in January 2025.

Also in 2019, Auburn Officer Kenneth Lyman shot and killed 26-year-old Enosa “EJ” Strickland Jr. Strickland’s parents accused the officer of excessive force and negligence in a civil lawsuit.

Prosecutors ruled the shooting justified. The city later settled the family’s lawsuit for $5.9 million and said the settlement wasn’t an admission of wrongdoing.

Auburn’s 2022 use-of-force report recorded one excessive-force allegation that year and said the investigation found misconduct outside department policy.

The department’s table listed one sustained allegation in 2022, two in 2020, one in 2021, and none in 2019. The report covers 2019 through 2022 and doesn’t address the current incident.