(VIDEO) Hawthorne Police Department Criticized for Using Excessive Force After Witness Video Goes Viral

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The Hawthorne Police Department is in hot water after a video of officers appearing to use excessive force  on an unarmed black man has gone viral. 

A post shared by BlueAsDa Sky (@blueasdasky) on Jun 7, 2019 at 5:21pm PDT

Officers from the department stopped William Ewell, 24, for an alleged robbery. The video was taken by a witness, identified as Sky, during Ewell's arrest and posted on Instagram live. 

The video has gone viral and has many commenting that one of the officers appears to be pointing a gun at Sky. 

"You gon' shoot me, too," Sky responds to a police officer telling her to "get out of the way," "for filming, right?" 

Confirmed here, the large gun is being pointed at the woman filming this. pic.twitter.com/4j0Fxk4sn3

— rafael (@rafaelshimunov) June 9, 2019

Sky tells officers that her boyfriend, Leroy Browning was also the victim of a police brutality incident in 2015.