The Juneau Police Department officer involved in an arrest that sent a man to a Seattle hospital last month has been identified as Officer Brandon LeBlanc.
LeBlanc was involved in a July 30 encounter with two people who police say were harassing another man. A woman was arrested and charged without incident, but video posted to social media shows LeBlanc holding a man against a patrol car before suddenly dropping down and flipping the man over his head and into the sidewalk — at which point the man is not seen moving for the remainder of the video.
Juneau City Manager Katie Koester wrote on Aug. 1 that LeBlanc was using a standard technique “designed to control the situation by bringing the suspect to the ground,” but that “this action went terribly wrong.”
The man was medevaced to a Seattle hospital the night of the encounter, on July 30. He has not been identified and no updates have been provided on his condition.
In a release sent Thursday, Juneau Police Chief Derek Bos writes that LeBlanc has 17 years of experience in law enforcement, largely served in Louisiana before he came to Juneau in August 2024.
Bos writes that the Juneau Police Department has obtained the assistance of “an outside law enforcement agency” to investigate the use of force. That investigation is ongoing. The State of Alaska Office of Special Prosecutions will also investigate the case. LeBlanc will remain on administrative leave while the investigations are ongoing.
Body-worn camera footage from the encounter, Bos writes, will be posted publicly to the Juneau Police Department website on Aug. 29.
Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.
