Two off-duty cops were drunk at a bar when they physically accosted an African man they believed to be a terrorist living in the country illegally – grabbing him by his wrists and forcing him out of the bar, where they threw him to the ground and sat on top of him until police arrived.
But the man they attacked was a legal American citizen and refugee from Eritrea who was working as a commercial truck driver and doing nothing more than minding his own business at the Buzzards Roost bar in Hinckley, Ohio.
However, eight months after the incident, neither cop has been arrested or charged for the illegal detainment.
But one of the cops, Daniel Lajack, resigned earlier this month from the Lake County Narcotics Agency after being notified of “potential disciplinary action” against him, according to WKYC.
The other cop, Donald Kopchak, who remains employed by the Cleveland Police Department, was suspended for one day in 2020 for rubbing a warrant in the face of a suspect.
At the time of the assault, both cops were part of federal task forces, including the Drug Enforcement Administration and Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, but were removed shortly after the incident.
The case is still being investigated by the FBI, which has provided no updates even though it should be a clear-cut case of false imprisonment and assault and battery if not more serious charges.
Multiple body camera videos from responding Hinckley and Brunswick police officers reveal the two assailant cops believed they were keeping the community safe by attacking the truck driver. Lajack was especially concerned about being portrayed negatively in the media.
“I’m not going to be the guy in the news, ‘Oh, this guy’s on a security cam; this guy ends up blowing the mall up tomorrow,’” Lajack said.
“I’m making sure that this guy is not on some watch list,” Lajack also said. “Then all of a sudden we’re on TMZ, ‘oh, these ATF and DEA guys are letting him off.’”
But the man they attacked, Yonas Bokredingil, told responding officers he tried to call police, but the two assailants snatched his phone and wallet from him.
“I’m legal, I’m a U.S. citizen,” he told a responding officer.
The Incident
It all started on April 26 when the two cops spotted Bokredingil sitting at the bar, drinking a beer and watching television. They began conversing with him, learning he was born in another country. But in their intoxicated states, the cops understood him to be from Israel and not Eritrea, which borders Ethiopia.
Witnesses inside the bar confirmed Bokredingil’s account that he was attacked without provocation.
“They were really being aggressive with him,” a bartender told police. “They were trying to snatch his phone. They were turning his arm.”
Another witness sitting at the bar told police that he told the two assailant cops they were “illegally detaining him,” but they responded by telling him they were federal agents.
“They’re obviously intoxicated,” a female cop told other cops on the body camera. “Had him thrown on the ground for no literally no good reason other than they had a hunch he was from another country and he was illegal.”
Another cop also noticed the two assailant cops were drunk.
“The guy has a valid CDL (commercial driver’s license) through Texas,” said Brunswick Police Sergeant Joseph Ceccacci.
“And they didn’t want to let the guy go, they put his hands behind his back, they drug him out here and held him on the ground … and said that he was illegal.
“These guys are drunk.”
In another clip from the body camera footage, two cops are discussing the incident, describing the two assailant cops as irrational.
“Why are they just detaining this guy?” one of the cops asks another.
“They’re drunk, and this guy came up to them and started saying some stuff, and they’re like, ‘Oh, this guy’s a terrorist, we can’t let him go,’” the cop responded.
“Does that sound sane to you?” the first cops responded.
“No,” the second cop said.
Although responding police knew the cops were drunk, they chose to protect them by not arresting them.
“I know you know we’re supposed to be a brotherhood, but this is messed up,” a female cop told other cops.
But both Lajack and Kopchak were allowed to go home after refusing to perform a sobriety test.
