Four white officers were suspended with pay a week after the choke-hold death of a black truck driver who had been stopped on suspicion of drunken driving.
The suspension came after black leaders complained."We're trying to keep a lid on things," Chief Deputy Jim Hammond said Thursday. "There are absolutely no facts to indicate that there's . . . any type of racism involved."
The Hamilton County sheriff's department initially had declined to take any action against the officers involved in the death of Larry Isaac Powell, who died Feb. 5 after he was put in a police choke hold.
Powell, 39, was driving along a two-lane highway in Hamilton County, north of Chattanooga, when he was stopped.
He cooperated until he failed sobriety tests and was told he was under arrest, Hammond said.
Choke holds, banned in many states, reduce blood flow to the brain and heart.