A 28-year-old Oklahoma City police officer was charged Thursday with felony assault stemming from an altercation with an elderly Vietnamese man suffering from bone cancer.
Lich Vu weighs only 110 pounds and stands just 5 feet 3. Body camera footage showed Sgt. Joseph Gibson throwing 71-year-old man to the ground after Vu touched Gibson’s chest during an argument over a traffic citation.
According to the Oklahoma County District Attorney’s Office, Gibson performed a “takedown” maneuver, causing Vu’s head to hit the pavement.
Vu sustained serious injuries, including an orbital fracture, neck fracture and a brain bleed. He remains hospitalized while Gibson has been on administrative leave, prosecutors say.
While the video is damning, Gibson maintains institutional support.
The Oklahoma City Fraternal Order of Police said in a statement they stand behind the officer, “who handled this call for service with professionalism.”
“It is very disappointing to see a police officer face felony charges for actions taken in good faith while serving in the line of duty,” said the FOP, which maintains Gibson followed proper protocols utilizing de-escalation techniques as he was trained.
Meanwhile, Oklahoma City’s Vietnamese community applauded the district attorney’s decision to prosecute.
“This is the first step, but we can’t replace the hurt. It can’t replace the trauma. It can’t replace a lot of things they’re experiencing,” said Thuan Nguyen, president-elect of the Vietnamese American Community of Oklahoma.
It wasn’t just the excessive force that angered the community. On the video, Vu is clearly having difficulty understanding what Gibson was saying to him.
“We evaluate the law and the facts in each individual case, and in this particular case determined the officer’s actions were an unreasonable use of force,” Oklahoma County District Attorney Vicki Zemp Behenna said in a statement.
Vu and his wife had just left church and were heading to a local shelter to help feed the homeless when they were involved in a minor fender bender, according to News 9.
Questioning why he was issued a citation, Vu tapped Gibson on the chest before placing an index finger to his mouth, effectively telling the cop to shut up. Gibson responded forcefully.
In the incident report, Gibson claims he was attacked but denies forcing Vu to the ground. The cop said the elderly man fell on his own after he grabbed his arm.
“While he was falling, his face was parallel to the ground,” Gibson’s report states. “Lich’s forehead hit the ground. I observed a laceration and a knot on his forehead. I placed Lich in handcuffs and observed Lich not respond and appeared to be unconscious. It appeared to me that Lich was breathing.”
Vu still suffers from headaches and is often disoriented, Nguyen said.
“He’s not in the state that he was in before the accident,” he said. Because of the injuries Vu has been unable to continue cancer treatment.
In their statement, the Fraternal Order of Police expressed concern about how the felony charge against Gibson might impact “the ability of officers to rely on their training and professional judgment to preserve order and protect the public.”
We are deeply concerned
