Disturbing video shows cops pummeling suspect in execution of his med student ex-girlfriend in broad daylight during cancer walk
Cops in Tennessee are investigating their ranks after a video surfaced of officers savagely pummeling a man accused of shooting his med student ex-girlfriend execution-style at a charity walk over the weekend.
After allegedly gunning down Ellie Claire Young, 22, Jackson Hopper, 24, led police on a multi-county chase that ended when officers flipped Hopper’s car with a PIT maneuver, dragged him out, and then punched him continuously for around 30 seconds, a cell phone video taken by a bystander shows.
Mugshots showed Hopper with a swollen face and black eye.
In a Facebook post, the sheriff’s office of Lauderdale County – where the arrest occurred – said it was “conducting an internal affairs investigation into any allegations of officer misconduct.”
The grisly scene began when Hopper allegedly found Young – a medical student at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center – sitting in her parked Jeep near the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer event.
Hopper then fired two shots into her vehicle before finishing her off, execution style, after she fell from her vehicle onto the parking lot, witnesses said.
During the ensuing multi-county police chase, Hopper allegedly tried to run down an officer laying out spike strips, cops said, adding that a gun was found in his Honda CRV.
“Ellie was just a light in this world. It’s going to be difficult without her,” Young’s brother-in-law Zachary Harris told The Post.
“Ellie was so nice. She went to church. A no-drinking, no-cussing, no-drugs kind of person….Kind of like Hop, to be honest,” a close friend of Hopper’s told The Post.
“Truly, he was the nicest guy I ever met. I never thought he could do something like this.”
The friend, who asked not to be named, said he introduced Hopper and Young while they attended the University of Tennessee Memphis together.
“I was the one who got them set up. They dated very happily for three years. I would call them and check on them and see what was going on. They had plans to move in and get married while she was at med school,” said the friend.
He said “Hop” – as his buddies knew him – never got into fights, only spoke fondly of his girlfriend, and was always ready to support a friend in need.
“When I was going through a hard time, he would pick me up and take me out for cheeseburgers,” the friend said. “One time our other friend needed $250 to take his [vocational certification] exam, and Hop gave him the money.”
When the friend last spoke to him in June, he said Hopper had a good job as a bookkeeper for a trailer company and he and Young still seemed to be together.
He said he has no idea what could have made his pal snap.
“It could be a lot of things that all built up over time. He kind of lost his support system when his friends left after college. He also didn’t really have a dad growing up. His mom was a single mother, and she worked extremely hard to put Jackson through college.”
He added: “What he did was truly terrible. I can’t defend him. But people online are saying he was this violent person, and I want to say that isn’t true at all. He was truly a good guy, and I don’t know what built up over time to push him past who he was.”
