BLOUNT COUNTY, Tenn. — After conversations online about marks on Kenneth Wayne DeHart Jr.'s face after he was arrested, the Blount County Sheriff's Office responded with additional details about his arrest.
DeHart Jr. is accused of fatally shooting a Blount County deputy and wounding another during a traffic stop. He led authorities on a five-day manhunt before he was found at a home in East Knoxville and taken into custody on Feb. 13. In his mugshot and in videos previously released by authorities, he is seen with a mark under his eye.
The mark led to questions about his treatment by officers during the arrest. Some new footage from the Knoxville Police Department and the Blount County Sheriff's Office obtained on March 22 shows new details about his arrest.
In one video, as he is turned over to KPD, he is walked back to a cruiser and there is no cut under his eye. In the video, he also complains about his handcuffs.
"You've got my circulation cut off," he said.
In another video, filmed just south of the University of Tennessee Medical Center, he transferred over to the Blount County Sheriff's Office. When he's put into the cruiser during that transfer, he has a scrape under his eye.
BCSO said it happened "when BCSO deputies attempted to remove hum from the backseat of KPD's cruiser during the transition from KPD's custody into BCSO's custody the day he was arrested."
BCSO said deputies tried to make sure the handcuffs were safely applied after he continued complaining about them. The sheriff's office said his weight caused him to fall down on the road, stomach-first.
WBIR received a few different stories about where the injuries came from. Previously, David Rausch, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation director, and the U.S. Marshal for East Tennessee said they saw no evidence of police brutality during the arrest.
Rausch previously said the cut underneath DeHart Jr.'s eye may have been caused by a pitbull at the scene of his arrest.