A Connecticut Department of Correction officer was arrested by state police for allegedly punching an uncooperative inmate in the face several times as he lay defenseless on the ground last summer, resulting in him being hospitalized.

Christopher Carlson, 33, was arrested Wednesday on a charge of third-degree assault, according to Connecticut State Police.

He was released on $5,000 bail after turning himself in to Troop H in Hartford. His arraignment in Hartford Superior Court is scheduled for July 12.

According to the arrest warrant affidavit, inmate Carlson was charged with assault and was involved in an altercation with another inmate on August 12, 2023, shortly after 8:45 p.m., which resulted in a Code Blue at MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield.

Correctional officers were initially unable to identify the inmates, so they sent each inmate to his cell to review video surveillance footage, the affidavit states. After identifying one of the inmates, correctional officers approached his cell to take him to the Restricted Housing Unit, but he reportedly covered the cell window with an object, the affidavit states.

The inmate allegedly refused when asked multiple times to release the cell window, at which point correctional officers used a chemical substance similar to pepper spray, causing the inmate to release the window, according to the arrest warrant affidavit. Officers pulled the inmate from the cell, and he reportedly fell to the ground, pulling several correctional officers with him.

A struggle on the ground reportedly ensued between the inmate and several officers, after which he was handcuffed and found to have sustained an injury to his eye in the incident, the arrest warrant affidavit states. Paramedics examined the inmate and sent him to UConn Hospital for further treatment.

The nature of the inmate's injuries was redacted from the arrest warrant affidavit before state police released it.

After the incident, Carlson reported to his supervisor that he had been elbowed in the face and sustained an injury. He did not report any use of force against the inmate, the affidavit states.

Carlson and his supervisor were placed on leave after several witnesses claimed Carlson struck the inmate several times during the altercation, at which point state police began investigating.

According to the arrest warrant affidavit, state police reportedly found that surveillance did not clearly indicate how the inmate sustained his injuries.

Investigators interviewed 33 people who may have witnessed the incident. Five of them claimed the inmate was punched in the face several times while he was defenseless on the ground, the affidavit states. The others said they were unable to see exactly what was going on during the scuffle. Those who could see it claimed the inmate was punched between two and six times.

Of the five people who said they saw the inmate being beaten, three identified Carlson as the alleged attacker, the affidavit said. The other two said they could not say who hit the man.

When state police investigators interviewed Carlson in February, he described the incident to them and never mentioned that the inmate had been beaten, the affidavit states. He reportedly told investigators he believed the man sustained his injury when he hit his face on the concrete floor.

When Carlson was repeatedly questioned about allegations that he struck the inmate, he each time denied hitting him and said that if he had hit him, he “would have had no problem documenting it in his records,” state police wrote in the arrest warrant affidavit.

When state police told Carlson that other witnesses they interviewed claimed he had a reputation for being “very tough on the use of force,” he said the DOC keeps records of all use-of-force incidents and his personnel file shows he had never been investigated for excessive use of force, the arrest warrant affidavit states.

State police pointed out that the DOC's use of force guidelines state that “the level of force used must be reasonable and appropriate under the circumstances.” It also states that “physical force must be proportionate to the level and duration necessary to achieve the authorized objective.”

State police concluded that numerous correctional officers had been pressing down on the inmate while he was lying face down and his elbow had only “extremely limited” movement, the arrest warrant affidavit states.

“Even if (the inmate's elbow) had struck Officer Carlson's face while attempting to cuff his hands, it would have been unreasonable to consider this an immediate threat to anyone on the scene,” State Police wrote. “Therefore, given the totality of the circumstances of this incident, it would have been neither reasonable nor appropriate for an officer to strike him in the face multiple times.”