SARASOTA — A Sarasota Police officer who was caught on video tossing peanuts into the mouth of a handcuffed homeless man has been suspended. The clip has since gone viral on YouTube and other websites.
On the video, Officer Andrew Halpin is seen attempting to toss peanuts into the mouth of a man identified as Randy Miller, a homeless resident that Halpin had arrested for trespass.
The events took place while Miller was being booked into the Sarasota County jail on trespassing charges on July 18. Miller seemed unable to catch them with his mouth and near the end of the video, appears to lay on the ground so that he could pick them up with his mouth from the floor.
The Sarasota Herald Tribune, the publication that broke the story, quotes a source familiar with the arrest as saying that Halpin was giving the homeless man "dog commands" during the incident.
Halpin is currently under suspension while the incident is being investigated by Sarasota Police Department's internal affairs unit.
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