Police Beating of Schizophrenic Caught on Tape

June 6, 2009— -- Ronnie Holloway's eyes were still black and blue one week after he was allegedly beaten by a Passaic, N.J., police officer -- an attack that was inadvertently caught on a video surveillance camera.

Holloway, who is on medication for schizophrenia, joined more than 80 others outside that community's city hall Saturday to demand that Officer Joseph R. Rios III be fired.

The tape shows Holloway, 49, waiting outside Lawrence's Grill and Bar restaurant in Passaic when a police cruiser pulled up and a female officer asked him to zip up his sweatshirt. Holloway appears to comply, but Rios jumps out and begins hitting him with his fists and a baton.

The scene shows baby strollers and other pedestrians walk by in the downtown retail section of this community of immigrants and working poor.

Holloway does not appear to resist, and at one point, Rios seems to stand him back up and then slam him into the police cruiser.

"These cops know him," said Holloway's lawyer Nancy Lucianna of Fort Lee, N.J. "He's lived in the town for 25 years, does the same routine every night. He goes out after dinner, takes a walk, and paces back and forth."

Lucianna said Holloway, who is a "soft-spoken, almost childlike" man who lives with his mother, has never had a police record of any kind.

"He is compliant and calm with medication," she told ABCNews.com.

His mother, Betty Holloway, said that without the surveillance tape, the truth about what happened would never have been revealed.

She said the female officer at the scene never tried to stop the officer as her son was beaten to the ground. Both Holloways deny he had a drug problem.

Betty Holloway said her son had always respected police before this incident.

"Now, he is confused and doesn't know what to think," she told ABC reporter Stacey Sager of New York affiliate WABC.

Passaic police refused to comment for ABCNews.com. Rios, a 7-year veteran of the police department is still on active duty, according to local police reports.

The Holloways have filed a complaint with the police's internal affairs department demanding an investigation. They are also asking for the state country prosecutor's office to bring criminal charges against Rios and are filing a suit against the department for police brutality.