COLDWATER — In a terse announcement issued at 5:59 p.m. Friday, Coldwater City Manager Keith Baker said, “Officer Lewis Eastmead is no longer employed with the city of Coldwater effective Jan. 12, 2018. As a result of ongoing litigation, no further comment will be made at this time.”
The announcement came less than a week after concerns from the public were brought to the council at a recent meeting.
Two unsuccessful candidates who ran for seats on the city councill in November, Dan Corwin and Alexia Rish, stood up to question council members last Monday on the civil rights lawsuit by Tiffany McNeil against the city of Coldwater, the Coldwater Police Department and CPD Officer Lewis Eastmead that stemmed from a July 24, 2017, arrest.
The comments follow a number of similar ones made on social media, as well as messages to The Daily Reporter, after video was released showing the officer forcing McNeil to the sally port floor at the Branch County Jail.
“It is time for the city of Coldwater to stand up and take responsibility for their actions,” Corwin said. “Anybody who looks at that knows it should not have happened — and everybody in the world has seen it.”
The video has been viewed over 30 million times and shared over 500,000 times on a number of websites and Facebook pages.
“Know the Realities” website listed the video as the No. 3 top police event in 2017, after two shootings.
“I don’t know why we are defending that kind of conduct,” Corwin said.
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