CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- As two Montgomery police officers allegedly beat Twan Reynolds last September, their superior officer says, he was trying to stop them.

Montgomery Lt. J.D. Burrow says Patrolmen Matthew Leavitt and Shawn Hutchinson threatened to arrest him when he tried to stop them from attacking Reynolds.

He also says that race - the fact that Reynolds is black and his wife is white - played into the reported brutality of what happened.

Reynolds and his wife, Lauren, say Leavitt and Hutchinson hit Reynolds in the head with a blackjack, kicked him in the back and sprayed him in the eyes with pepper spray at close range following a traffic stop at the 7-Eleven in Montgomery on Sept. 26.

They are suing the two officers and the town.

They also say Leavitt repeatedly used a racial epithet against Reynolds. Lauren Reynolds accused Leavitt of licking her on the neck during an interrogation and saying, "Little whore, you like it like that."

"These guys were on their own. They felt like they could do what they want," Burrow said last week. "It seemed like they always had that little leeway to do what they wanted to, to me."

'Aren't you going to help?'

Burrow said he was on patrol when he saw Leavitt and Hutchinson driving to the 7-Eleven with lights flashing, according to a statement Burrow provided to the city of Montgomery. (The statement was obtained by the Gazette-Mail through the Reynoldses' lawyer, Mike Clifford.)

Reynolds followed the officers to the store, where they had Lauren and Twan Reynolds pulled over. Burrow says he overheard Lauren repeatedly tell Leavitt and Hutchinson that she hadn't been drinking.

When Leavitt and Hutchinson walked around to Twan Reynolds' side of the car, Burrow told them he would handle Reynolds, that the two men were neighbors, according to the statement made by Burrow.

"Leavitt told me to shut the [expletive] up. That no one talks to him like that," according to the statement.

Leavitt and Hutchinson pulled Twan Reynolds out of his car and tried to handcuff him. When Reynolds told the men he hadn't done anything that justified arrest, Leavitt pulled out a small blackjack and hit him in the face with it, according to Burrow's statement.

"I said, 'What are you doing?'" Burrow writes in the statement. "I reached in to pull Leavitt away from Twan. Leavitt then hit Twan in the face with his fist several times. I told Leavitt to stop. ... Leavitt asked me, 'Aren't you going to help?' ... [They] said they would arrest my ass if I didn't step back."

Leavitt reportedly sprayed Reynolds in the face with pepper spray before cuffing him and putting him in Burrow's police cruiser.

Back at city hall, Burrow said he again tried to intervene on the Reynolds-es' behalf.

"Then Hutchinson told me to 'get my [expletive] ass out of the room or he would arrest me,'" Burrow writes in the statement.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- As two Montgomery police officers allegedly beat Twan Reynolds last September, their superior officer says, he was trying to stop them.

Montgomery Lt. J.D. Burrow says Patrolmen Matthew Leavitt and Shawn Hutchinson threatened to arrest him when he tried to stop them from attacking Reynolds.

He also says that race - the fact that Reynolds is black and his wife is white - played into the reported brutality of what happened.

Reynolds and his wife, Lauren, say Leavitt and Hutchinson hit Reynolds in the head with a blackjack, kicked him in the back and sprayed him in the eyes with pepper spray at close range following a traffic stop at the 7-Eleven in Montgomery on Sept. 26.

They are suing the two officers and the town.

They also say Leavitt repeatedly used a racial epithet against Reynolds. Lauren Reynolds accused Leavitt of licking her on the neck during an interrogation and saying, "Little whore, you like it like that."

"These guys were on their own. They felt like they could do what they want," Burrow said last week. "It seemed like they always had that little leeway to do what they wanted to, to me."

'Aren't you going to help?'

Burrow said he was on patrol when he saw Leavitt and Hutchinson driving to the 7-Eleven with lights flashing, according to a statement Burrow provided to the city of Montgomery. (The statement was obtained by the Gazette-Mail through the Reynoldses' lawyer, Mike Clifford.)

Reynolds followed the officers to the store, where they had Lauren and Twan Reynolds pulled over. Burrow says he overheard Lauren repeatedly tell Leavitt and Hutchinson that she hadn't been drinking.

When Leavitt and Hutchinson walked around to Twan Reynolds' side of the car, Burrow told them he would handle Reynolds, that the two men were neighbors, according to the statement made by Burrow.

"Leavitt told me to shut the [expletive] up. That no one talks to him like that," according to the statement.

Leavitt and Hutchinson pulled Twan Reynolds out of his car and tried to handcuff him. When Reynolds told the men he hadn't done anything that justified arrest, Leavitt pulled out a small blackjack and hit him in the face with it, according to Burrow's statement.

"I said, 'What are you doing?'" Burrow writes in the statement. "I reached in to pull Leavitt away from Twan. Leavitt then hit Twan in the face with his fist several times. I told Leavitt to stop. ... Leavitt asked me, 'Aren't you going to help?' ... [They] said they would arrest my ass if I didn't step back."

Leavitt reportedly sprayed Reynolds in the face with pepper spray before cuffing him and putting him in Burrow's police cruiser.

Back at city hall, Burrow said he again tried to intervene on the Reynolds-es' behalf.

"Then Hutchinson told me to 'get my [expletive] ass out of the room or he would arrest me,'" Burrow writes in the statement.

'Racial stuff'

Montgomery Police Chief Pete Lopez said Thursday he hasn't seen Burrow's statement. He said anything like that he would have forwarded to the Fayette County Sheriff's Department, which is investigating the incident.

Hutchinson was still in his probationary period and was fired immediately after the incident. Leavitt was on paid administrative leave until he was called to active military duty in November. He is on unpaid leave from the Montgomery Police Department and is scheduled to go to Iraq, Lopez said.

"Policemen are afforded the Policeman's Bill of Rights," Lopez said when asked why Leavitt hadn't been fired. "There is a specific manner to dismiss an officer. The first procedure is for an investigation."

Burrow, who is black, said this was not the first incident involving Leavitt and Hutchinson allegedly attacking people.

Black people in the community would occasionally complain about the two officers' conduct, he said.

"There were certain things that happened, and people would come to me about things like that," Burrow told the Gazette-Mail on Thursday. "They would explain that they needed something taken up with the chief. ... There were several incidents that happened, that I do believe took place, but there was nothing I could do about it."

Burrow said he was asked last spring by former police chief Lawrence Washington to move from day shift to evening shift "to find out if there was any racial profiling going on."

Burrow said that when he refused to cover up Leavitt and Hutchinson's actions, he was put back on day shift. He went to Montgomery Mayor Jim Higgins to discuss the matter.

"I said, I'm a man of God and I'm not going to get up and lie for you. I believe in telling the truth, and that's what I told him. ... I wasn't going to lie for [Leavitt and Hutchinson]," Burrow said Thursday. "The next day, I was back on day shift."

When contacted at home Thursday, Higgins' wife said he was sick and would not come to the phone.

Lopez said he doesn't believe race is an issue in the matter.

"Personally, I think that became an issue when the lawyers got involved," he said.

Burrow said he doesn't understand why Leavitt and Hutchinson were on the police force when so many allegations cropped up during their time in Montgomery.

"It was thrown in a corner until something big like this happened," he said. "Now it's a different story."

Reach Gary Harki at gha...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5163.