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 The video, which went viral over the weekend, shows two security
officers confronting a man in the stands at Saturday's matchup
between Ole Miss and Louisiana State University at the
Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford, Miss.
The man is identified as Chris Barnes by his wife, Holly Barnes, who
posted the video on her Facebook page. In the video, Chris Barnes is
smiling during his conversation with the officers when one of them
appears to punch or push him, causing him to fall down behind some
nearby spectators.
The officers pull Barnes back up, and then one officer punches him
in the face as the crowd around them reacts in shock and some fans
start trying to pull Barnes away from the officers.
"We do not tolerate violent behavior on our campus, and our request
for an independent FBI investigation should make it clear that we
are taking this situation very seriously," said University Police
Department Chief Tim Potts in a news release.
The release said the FBI arrived on campus on Monday to begin their
inquiry.
The officer in question, who has not been identified, was an
off-duty officer from the nearby New Albany Police Department
working security for the game and has been placed on paid leave
pending the investigation, New Albany Police Chief Chris Robertson
said in a statement.
Barnes was arrested during the incident and posted bail four hours
later, his wife said in her post. It was unclear what charge he was
booked on, and officials at the Lafayette County Jail declined to
release the information.
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Barnes asked friends to take him to the emergency room, where he was
diagnosed with a concussion, fractures to his orbital wall and
maxillary sinus and damage to eye tissue, Holly Barnes posted.
"This all stemmed because the officers thought he did something that
someone a few rows up did and blamed him and his friends," she wrote
in her post, which asked that the officer who punched her husband be
punished. "YOU ARE NOT ABOVE THE LAW. THIS IS NOT OK."
(Reporting by Karen Brooks in Austin, Texas; Editing by David
Gregorio)
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