NEW ORLEANS — The NOPD has reassigned an officer after a viral video circulated on social media of him carrying and roughly throwing a young woman onto the ground outside a Popeyes on the St. Charles Avenue parade route, according to our partners at NOLA.com.
Interim NOPD Superintendent Michelle Woodfork said on Monday morning that the department is investigating the incident.
"At this time, I'm not really sure what was going during that time," Woodfork said. "In effort to get in front of it, we did initiate a formal disciplinary investigation to see if there was any wrongdoing going on at that time."
The video seems to show the incident occurring outside a Popeyes restaurant near the parade route at the intersection of St. Charles Avenue and Erato Street.
While it's unclear if the incident in question happened on Sunday night, video does show that following an NOPD response to an altercation at a Popeyes, the reassigned officer lifts up a woman in a yellow shirt and carries her several feet from the sidewalk before throwing her to the ground.
What precipitated the action is not known at this time.
Afterward, the officer is struck by a member of the Mardi Gras crowd.
It is currently unclear if the incident has any connection to the shooting on the Bacchus parade route from Sunday night that left four wounded and a teenager dead.
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