Former Bellator Fighter Jerald Williams No Longer A Police Officer After Slamming Suspect
Jerald Williams is a former professional MMA fighter and now a former police officer in Chicago after footage went viral of Williams body slamming a suspect onto concrete.
Chicago CBS 2 recently posted footage from this past November of Williams slamming Bernard Kersh to the concrete. Kersh had been served with a ticket by police for being drunk, but Kersh resisted arrest and allegedly spit on the face of Williams, which is what allegedly lead to him being slammed on the concrete.
Kersh, in an interview with Chicago CBS 2, denied spitting in the face of Williams during the altercation.
“I didn’t spit at no officer,” Kersh told CBS 2 (via Tim Bissell of Bloody Elbow). “I didn’t lick no officer’s face.”
Alexa Van Brunt, who is the legal director of the MacArthur Justice Center at Northwestern University, called the body slam by Williams excessive.
“The degree of, or lack of care shown to [Kersh] through the whole incident from start to finish, is really appalling,” said Van Brunt.
Williams earned a 3-1-0 record as a professional MMA fighter, with his lone Bellator appearance being a unanimous decision win over Joey Diehl at Bellator 84 in December of 2012.
