Mantua’s police chief has been placed on leave after a brutal interaction that was caught on video

MANTUA, Utah – Mantua Police Chief Dakota Midkiff has been placed on leave after videos and photos showed his interaction with a 76-year-old man earlier this month.

Images from Oct. 5 show Midkiff arresting Rick Schulze, a retired state wildlife officer who was left bruised and bleeding after the incident.

“He’s one of the nicest guys in town,” resident Steve Lowder said of Schulze.

On Wednesday, Schulze, his eyes still black, declined to speak with FOX 13 News.

A City Council member confirmed that Midkiff is currently on paid administrative leave while the incident is investigated, but Mantua officials declined further comment.

According to a jail booking statement, the police chief responded to a family dispute and questioned the parents about whether they had hit a child. One of the parents was Schulze’s daughter.

When Schulze arrived at the scene, Midkiff told him to leave. Moments later, the chief wrote, he turned around and allegedly found Schulze in the driveway yelling at him.

In the report, Midkiff wrote that Schulze refused to comply with orders to put his hands behind his back and therefore “decentralized” the older man and took him to the ground.

Schulze was later booked into the Box Elder County Jail on suspicion of interfering with a peace officer, but has never been charged with a crime.

Midkiff previously worked for the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office for three and a half years and with the Wendover Police Department for one and a half years

However, the minutes of Midkiff’s hiring in 2022 indicate that a Mantua City Council member stated: “He will tell anyone who asks him not to ask Chief Midkiff for help… because he believes Dakota Midkiff will be hired because of his lack of service.” Experience would not handle it properly.” . He also said that citizens should be afraid…”

Midkiff is the city’s fourth police chief in five years.

In 2019, the then-chief was arrested for drunken driving in his patrol car, and two years later another chief was fired over a dispute over whether he had written enough tickets. It turned out that this boss’s successor had been fired by a previous employer and later resigned, leading to Midkiff’s hiring.

Some residents want to fix the small town’s entire law enforcement system and are expected to voice their opinions during a council meeting Thursday.