A California man taken into custody over weekend has claimed officers at the San Joaquin County Jail made racist comments before beating him bloody, sparking a law enforcement investigation.
Jacob Angelo Servin recalled his encounter with San Joaquin County Sheriff’s correctional officers in a social media post on Tuesday, accusing them of a “racist hate crime.”
“Yesterday 3 racist county sheriffs from Stockton held me down beat me, choked me, kicked me and tried to snap my neck, with their fists and batons one by one for a long period of time while I was yelling and yelling for them to stop,” he wrote on Instagram under the username jaykie_.
“They left me to die with my face disfigured a broken nose, lacerations in my face and head tons of bruises all over my body with a huge loss of blood.”
The 28-year-old added that he is “barely able to walk or sleep in wake of the incident,” which occurred Sunday after he was arrested while leaving Basil’s Bar.
Servin told Fox40 that he and his girlfriend got in their car and had the keys in the ignition when they were pulled out of their vehicle by a pair of Stockton officers. Authorities confirmed that Servin was arrested around 11 p.m. for public intoxication and was uninjured at that time.
“When Mr. Servin arrived from Stockton P.D. and was booked into our jail we did not see any visible injuries at that time,” San Joaquin County Sheriff Patrick Withrow told the news station.
In a press release issued in wake of the allegations, Withrow added that Servin was “non-compliant with officers during the initial phase of the booking process.
“Due to his refusal to cooperate and comply, he was escorted to a temporary holding cell, where he was physically assaulted.”
Authorities also alleged that Servin tried to grab at one officer’s equipment, kicked another deputy, grabbed a female officer, and tried to bite another staff member at the jail.
“Correctional officers were forced to react to his aggressiveness in order to protect themselves and maintain the safety and security of the other officers in the facility,” the statement read.
Servin strongly denied he provoked the officers in anyway.
“They said I tried to bite her? Come on, be realistic,” he told Fox40. “I’d still be in jail and waiting to see a judge for that, for those kinds of actions.”
Officials have launched an investigation into the matter.
Servin’s social media post, which includes photos of him bloody and swollen, have sparked backlash across the internet. Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs said on Twitter that while the issue was outside of his jurisdiction, he took the time to meet with Servin and his family.
“No one deserves to be beatin to a pulp like this not for the color of their skin or ethnicity,” Servin wrote in the viral post. “I will not sleep until justice is met.”
