Horrifying video from an incident in May 2019 shows Ronald Greene being beaten, tasered, and dragged by his feet by state troopers in his arrest. The brutal treatment eventually led to his death. In the video, Greene is heard screaming, “I’m your brother, I’m scared!” moments before his death.
In Monroe, Louisiana, Chris Hollingsworth and Dakota Demoss pulled Greene over after a 115-mile-per-hour chase. Greene, a barber, failed to pull over for an unspecified traffic violation on May 10, 2019. The 46-minute bodycam footage shows Hollingsworth and Demoss stopping Greene’s SUV. He is seen raising his hands and apologizing, repeating, “I’m your brother! I’m scared! I’m scared!”
Both troopers order Green to step out of the vehicle, and Hollingsworth goes on to tase Greene through the driver’s side window. Greene exists the vehicle through the passenger side. Hollingsworth then wrestles Greene to the ground. He puts Greene in a chokehold and punches him in the face. Demoss is heard calling him a ‘stupid motherfu**ker’. Hollingsworth attempts to cuff Greene on the ground and strikes him multiple times.
At one point, Greene wails “I’m sorry!” as a trooper uses a stun gun on him, saying, “Look, you’re going to get it again if you don’t put your f*king hands behind your back!”
Greene is then left on the ground, facedown and unattended, for more than nine minutes, groaning from his injuries. During this time, the troopers were wiping blood from their hands and faces. One of the troopers is heard saying, “I hope this guy ain’t got f**king AIDS.” Another trooper, Kory York, appears to drag Greene face down on his stomach after his legs had been shackled before kicking him, as Greene attempts to shift from his stomach to his side.
Greene is not seen on camera for several minutes. When he appears again, he is unresponsive and bleeding from his head and face. He is transferred onto an ambulance gurney, where his arm is cuffed to the bedrail.
Initially, Greene was believed to have died on impact after crashing into a tree during the chase. However, state police released a statement acknowledging that Greene was alive when he was apprehended by the troopers. Greene died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.
The cause of Greene’s death remains unclear and a federal and state investigation into Greene’s death is undergoing. Coroners maintain that his death was the result of cardiac arrest. Greene’s mother, Mona Hardin, stated, “They murdered him. It was set out, it was planned. He didn’t have a chance. Ronnie didn’t have a chance. He wasn’t going to live to tell about it.”
Master Trooper Chris Hollingsworth was pronounced dead in September of 2020 after a single-vehicle highway crash. A few hours before his death, Hollingsworth had learned that he was being terminated by State Police for his role in Ronald Greene’s death. Authorities have not released details about how the crash occurred. Hollingsworth crashed his vehicle on Interstate 20 near Monroe and was airlifted to Shreveport, where he succumbed to his injuries after a brief hospitalization.
