Richland County Sheriff Lott: Deputy fired after camera footage shows excessive force

COLUMBIA (AP) - A deputy in South Carolina has been fired and charged with assault after body camera footage showed he yanked a woman to the ground by her hair, a sheriff said Wednesday.

Kyle Oliver, 29, reported using force on Jan. 7, but what he wrote in his report did not match the footage from another officer's body camera, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said at a news conference.

Lott said he reviewed the camera footage on Monday after receiving a tip. He said the woman never reported the excessive force.

Lott decided to fire Oliver, and after prosecutors reviewed the footage, they charged him with misdemeanor third-degree assault.

"His actions are unacceptable, and I will not have it from any of my deputies," Sheriff Lott said. "I hold my deputies to a much higher standard."

The woman had been arrested on a domestic violence charge. Handcuffed behind her back, she was banging her head against a wall when Oliver ran up, grabbed her by her hair and yanked her forward to the ground, according to the body camera footage.

Lott said he is also upset that none of Oliver's supervisors checked the body camera footage against his excessive-force report when it was filed. The sheriff promised to put in place new rules requiring supervisors to match such written reports with available video.

"We work everyday doing good things out there, but it only takes one time, like you just saw, to create mistrust in the community," Lott said after showing the video to reporters.