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The video above, which was posted anonymously to a Hoopa community group on Facebook Sunday, has prompted allegations of police brutality and excessive force.

According to members of the social media group, the video shows deputies from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office forcefully detaining a local resident named Rodney Lowell Doolittle, who was booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility Sunday morning on charges of public intoxication and resisting arrest. 

Several of the commenters say Doolittle is mentally challenged, and they question the need to use such force.

“[T]his is police brutality and they should have a tribal police officer with them and it should be mandatory they wear body cams and they should have waited until a mental health representative was contacted,” one commenter says, adding, “They all know he has a mental health problem.”

The video appears to show one deputy punching Doolittle in the chest and head while two other deputies pin him to the ground. The deputy appears to deploy a Taser on Doolittle less than a minute later as his fellow deputies yell at the suspect to put both arms behind his back. 

Toward the end of the video, a vehicle belonging to the Hoopa Valley Tribal Police arrives at the scene, and an officer gets out and approaches the deputies, who by that point have Doolittle subdued.

Many Hoopa residents remain upset about an incident last month in which a California Highway Patrol officer shot and killed an unarmed Hoopa tribal member during a struggle that followed a car and foot pursuit. That incident remains under investigation.

The Outpost has reached out to the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office for comment on Sunday’s incident and to request copies of any and all body camera footage. We will provide an update when we hear back.