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Orlando Police Officers Face Questions About Their Behavior

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ORLANDO (CBSMiami) – Two Orlando police officers are facing questions about their behavior. Cell phone video appears to show them kicking a man accused of assaulting his ex-girlfriend.

The woman who shot the video says the officers went too far. Police said they used a Taser and that the video doesn't tell the whole story.

Police say what is seen and heard in the video is the end of a violent struggle with Noel Carter. The two officers in the video say they saw Carter pushing and grabbing his ex-girlfriend Thursday night.

In the reports, police wrote that the man was drunk. They tried to arrest him but he reportedly pulled away, lunged towards them, wrestled with them, punched one of the officers and then ran away—even after being hit by a Taser several times and being pepper sprayed.

CLICK HERE to watch Walter Makaula's report

Officers Charles Mays and David Cruz said they were scraped up from fighting and their eyes were stinging from the pepper spray and worried that Carter would over-power them. Officer Cruz said he started kicking until Carter rolled over onto his stomach.

The woman who captured the video, who didn't want to be identified, admits she didn't see what led up to the kicking—but she thinks it doesn't matter.

"He wasn't resisting. He was basically, if you look at the video, sitting down," the woman said.

Police Chief John Mina released a statement which reads, in part, we take "any encounter between our law enforcement officers and our citizens involving the use of force seriously." He said an investigation was launched into the officers' use of force. "We are committed to fully and thoroughly investigating this entire incident from beginning to conclusion."

Police will also be listening to radio transmissions and 9-1-1 calls, if there were any. Police have been asked for any body camera footage, they say those officers were not wearing body cams.

Carter is charged with battery and resisting an officer and has bonded out of jail.

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