FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Police body cam video shows Officer Alexander Paul punching Francisco Moore in the head several times on Feb. 21 outside of The Wharf in Fort Lauderdale.
Gustavo Frances, Moore’s attorney, said the Fort Lauderdale Police Department videos do not show what the officer reported. Paul accused Moore of punching him in the head.
“The video shows without a doubt Officer Paul sucker-punching Francisco Moore without cause,” Frances said.
Moore, who is a tourist from Pennsylvania, said security at The Wharf asked them to leave, and he was trying to leave with Tracey DeJesus, Moore’s fiancée.
“I still can’t wrap my head around it,” Moore said. “I don’t understand why it had to escalate like that.”
Paul remained on active duty on Thursday. Records show Paul has had 74 use of force incidents since he joined the department in 2015.
The department’s internal affairs unit is reviewing the incident “as a part of our usual process,” Casey Liening, a spokeswoman for the department, wrote in an e-mail about the Feb. 21st arrest.
“At this time, Detective Paul is not under investigation for this incident,” Liening wrote.
Liening said Paul is under investigation by the State Attorney’s Office for a previous officer-involved shooting in 2019 in which he shot Melvin Ring at a bus terminal.
Related stories