OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday for the trial of a former Omaha police officer charged after a deadly encounter with a mentally ill man.
Thirty-nine-year-old Scotty Payne is charged with felony assault and use of a weapon in the June 5, 2017, death of Zachary Bearheels. Police say the 29-year-old Bearheels was acting erratically at an Omaha convenience store and fought officers’ efforts to take him into custody.
Police cruiser video shows Payne using a stun gun on Bearheels and Officer Ryan McClarty dragging Bearheels by his hair and repeatedly punching him in the face. McClarty is scheduled to begin trial Jan. 14.
A judge ruled last month that jurors to be chosen for Payne’s trial will not learn that it led to the officer’s firing.