HAZARD, KY. — Kentucky State Police responded Tuesday to a viral TikTok video that shows two men pinning a person down while a state trooper looks on in the town of Hazard.
In the video, TikTok user "@the_savage_lokius" questions why a trooper was standing by in a video as two white men pinned a Black male, whose age is not known, down on the pavement of a parking lot.
The video of the incident in Hazard, Kentucky, has more than 18,000 "likes," 4,000 comments and 2,500 shares.
"I'm going to show this video because we don't have any context of what is happening, but a police officer is definitely standing there doing nothing," the poster said before playing the video of the incident.
The poster encouraged anyone in the Hazard area to help figure out what happened.
@the_savage_lokius #crownedofthefold #evolutionofthefold #blackaugust #hazardky #calltoaction Ok Let's Get It comment what u find Contact info at the end of the video
The video shows a trooper standing near two men while they pinned a person down. The person screams throughout the video, and the men pinning him down eventually moved, so they were not putting their weight on him.
Kentucky State Police said Tuesday that the incident in the video happened on June 21 and that the trooper responded to assist with a "situation" in a parking lot.
KSP Commissioner Phillip Burnett, Jr. said that an ambulance eventually arrived on the scene after the video ended and that the trooper took steps to de-escalate the situation.
"The Trooper spoke with the individual's caregivers and took appropriate action to de-escalate the situation by utilizing Crisis Intervention Training, a program developed by the National Alliance on Mental Illness, that allowed the caregivers to use their training to prevent the individual from harming himself or others," Burnett, Jr., said in a statement. "EMS responded to the scene and transported the individual to the hospital where he was treated and released."
Kentucky law states that the use of physical force by a parent, guardian or caregiver is "justifiable" when the defendant believes that force is necessary to "promote the welfare" of a minor or mentally disabled person. The law also states that officers should not use force with the intent or risk of causing "death, serious physical injury, disfigurement, extreme pain, or extreme mental distress."
This story was originally published by Scripps station WLEX in Lexington, Kentucky.
