Police Commissioner Ellison Greenslade yesterday said the officer who family members say used excessive force while trying to arrest an Eleuthera man, received several injuries during the incident as well.

Last week, the mother of a man shot twice to each leg broke the story of how she felt her son was the victim of police brutality over the Monday holiday.

He has since been admitted in hospital, treated for his injuries and is under arrest.

The officer who did the shooting, according to the commissioner received a number of injuries.

“He has very serious bite marks, injuries to the face underneath the right eye and injuries to the left arm,” he said.

“I don’t wish to say more than that because I wish to be fair to all sides.”

A video of the shooting was also produced, which show the victim actually beating up the police officer before the shots were fired as onlookers stood by and did nothing.

Commissioner Greenslade said he saw the video and while he could not say just yet who is at fault, that the police officer had every right to arrest the man.

The commissioner added that he is disappointed in the way civilians allowed the incident to escalate the way it did as the officer was all alone.

“There are many times officers are not going to have back up,” he said.

“Officers are trained to work independently and they do so all across the country many many times. But what I find to be disturbing is that where that happens and members of the public stand by and do idly nothing and that is troubling.”

“That is not the way we behave in the Family Islands and in fact that’s not the way we behave in New Providence. Because if an officer is in fear or has a challenge, we expect members of the public to assist, to go to that officer’s aid and to prevent things from getting out of control.”

Assistant Commissioner of Police Leon Bethel has been assigned to deal with the matter and will do so with all such cases involving police shootings from here on in.