Authorities in Tonalá, Jalisco, have begun internal proceedings against a police officer who used a suspected thief as a piñata.

Police had responded to reports of a vehicle that had been stolen while a 5-year-old girl slept in the back seat. They located the vehicle but the thief abandoned it and fled on foot.

Officers chased the suspect to the roof of a nearby church, where he threatened to jump to his death. For the next two hours, police officers and firefighters attempted to dissuade the man, slowly drawing closer to him, while a crowd of onlookers gathered below.

Finally, police were able to lasso the man by his ankle, and when he leapt from the roof he was left hanging upside down from a rope tied between the church and another building.

That was when a police officer climbed far enough to hit the man with a stick, which he began to do as if the suspect were a piñata. Shouts of encouragement came from the large group of spectators below.

Policías de Tonalá agarran a palazos a ladrón de autos como si fuera piñata pic.twitter.com/yimUmaXuOZ

— jorge mtz (@jorge2702) July 31, 2019

Eventually, police arrested the man and handed him over to the public prosecutor’s office after he was given medical attention.

In the meantime, municipal authorities issued a statement saying that internal affairs had opened an investigation into the incident, which was captured on video and has been widely shared on social media.

Source: El Universal (sp)