Watch: How police assaulted a Ghanaian Harvard student who was naked on the street

A Ghanaian student at Harvard University has been assaulted and arrested by Policemen in Cambridge after he was running naked on the streets.

A viral video of the incident which took place Friday night showed the Ghanaian Student known as Selorm Ohene, being confronted by officers on a concrete median in the middle of a busy street, before he is dropped to the ground. One officer is said to have punched him about five times in the stomach.

During the beating, Ohene can be heard screaming, “Help me, Jesus! Help me, Jesus! Help me, Jesus!”

Police say they received calls of a naked man on the streets who was reportedly high on drugs. According to them, when they got to the scene, Ohene resisted arrest and that made the officer hit him to gain compliance.

Following the incident, the Harvard University president, Drew Faust, said the video was “profoundly disturbing.”

“A Harvard student was in obvious distress, and we need to understand how that came to be and whether we could have interceded earlier and more effectively,” Faust wrote Monday in a letter. “We have been witness to the use of force against a member of our community, which, regardless of circumstances, is upsetting and compels the search for a deeper understanding.”

The university’s black law student association said that a number of its members witnessed what it called a “brutal instance of police violence,” saying in a statement that the student screamed for help as he was punched in the torso. The statement, which was signed by more than a dozen other student groups, said that “a pool of blood” was left on the pavement by the struggle.

Meanwhile, the Ghanaian student has since been charged with indecent exposure, disorderly conduct, assault, resisting arrest, and assault and battery on an ambulance personnel.

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