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An investigation has been called for at the Oklahoma County Jail after an officer was caught on camera allegedly stomping on the head of an inmate Tuesday, KTLA sister station KFOR reports.

KFOR obtained video security footage showing Chief Operating Officer Tony Towery approaching a detainee, bringing up his leg, and throwing it down. In the footage, the detainee’s upper body including his head is flung to the side as if it was hit.

“Unfortunately, the detainee chose to ignore the officer’s commands to go back to his cell, and instead chose to threaten the officers with hair clippers,” said Brandi Garner, CEO of the Oklahoma County Detention Center.

“He looked like he was being compliant. Once someone is compliant, if you are kicking them in the head then that is retribution,” said Mark Faulk of the People’s Council for Justice Reform.

After watching the video Faulk said there is no way that isn’t excessive use of force from Towery.

Towery has been in Oklahoma law enforcement for years and has even received the 2018 Police Officer of the Year award.

Tony Towery is pictured on the right. Images/video provided by Oklahoma County Jail Trust

Mark Opgrande works as the Director of Communications for the Detention Center. After seeing the 13-second video KFOR had he released nearly 10 minutes of security footage from the same incident.

“If you look closely, you can see that it seems like he puts his foot on the detainee’s back,” said Opgrande. “Again, when you look at the video depending on the angle, our investigation will show that he was not stomping on anybody’s head.”

“Once that man laid on the ground he was compliant,” argued Faulk. “Whatever incident led up to that is basically over at that point.”

Opgrande said that the detainee was not being cooperative before the incident in question and officers had to deploy pepper spray and pepper balls to subdue him.

“They had to do what they could at that time to calm the detainee down and get him back into his cell,” said Opgrande.

Eventually, the detainee picked up a pair of inmate hair trimmers and threatened an officer.

The video Opgrande released shows the detainee holding something in his hands while officers tried calming him down.

“More needs to be done on a higher level, they need to rethink how this jail is run and I’m looking at those in charge…,” said Faulk.

Faulk said that he has started speaking to federal leaders to try and get changes to happen.

“I actually met with the Department of Justice today,” said Faulk. “We are trying to get them to notice that they need to take over and get the ball rolling. Most of the people in the jail have mental health issues but they keep getting put back in here over and over again.”

For now, the investigation continues and Oprande says if it does implicate anyone then the Oklahoma County District Attorney would be the one to make decisions.

“The whole thing started because he wouldn’t go back into his cell,” said Opgrande. “They can look at all of the videos we have and decide if anyone needs to be charged or if someone needs to be disciplined.”