“ST. PETERSBURG — A police officer has resigned after two fellow officers reported he used excessive force during an August arrest and lied about it in a report on the encounter.

Top St. Petersburg police officials met Monday to discuss what occurred and determine what punishment might be appropriate. During that meeting Officer Andrew Cane resigned.

Cane on Aug. 20 placed a man in handcuffs near 211 Third St. N. after he was spotted urinating in public and exposing his genitals. Two other officers arrived as Cane held the suspect against a wall, and they reported seeing Cane slam the man to the ground.

Cane wrote in his incident report that the suspect, 43-year-old James Robert Blair of Pinellas Park, tried twisting the officer’s grip after he was placed in handcuffs, became aggressive and appeared to want to fight. After Cane told Blair to stop resisting, the report says, the suspect kept twisting about and was poised to attack.

Cane wrote that because of Blair’s aggressive behavior, taking him to the ground was the safest option.

But the two other officers who arrived on scene disagreed, and reported Cane’s actions to their supervisors. At a news conference Tuesday, Chief Anthony Holloway said even after “shocking” surveillance video of the encounter emerged, Cane stuck to his story.

“I didn’t see anything that he wrote in his report that I saw in this video,” Holloway said.

Cane’s use of force, by itself, was not cause for dismissal, St. Petersburg police officials said. But investigators determined Cane also falsified his report on the arrest.”

The rest of the story and video here: http://www.tbo.com/news/crime/video-st-pete-officer-takes-down-handcuffed-man-20151110/?utm_source=hootsuite