Four police officers in San Jose, California have been suspended after a grainy phone cell video showed them beating a Vietnamese student and shocking him with a Taser last month, the city’s Mercury News reported Sunday.

The San Jose State University math major was struck on the head with a baton, something that experts say is potentially lethal and should be used only when appropriate.

Even after he was handcuffed, Phuong was hit with a baton at least once.

The reports filed by the police officers tell a different story and have Phuong refusing to comply with their orders and kicking violently as they tried to handcuff him.

While some local experts said the quality of the video recorded by Phuong’s roommate was too poor to reach any conclusions, others had no doubt.

“I don’t think you can watch that video and not be very concerned about what you’ve seen,” San Jose police chief Rob Davis told the Mercury in a telephone interview.

Davis, San Jose’s mayor and a city councilman said they would conduct a fair and thorough review of the case.

According to the newspaper, on September 3, Phuong and his roommate Jeremy Suftin got into a fight after Suftin slopped soap on Phuong’s dinner steak.

Phuong then picked up a steak knife and told Suftin, “In Vietnam, I would kill you for this!”

While Phuong’s threat merely elicited a laugh from the others present, Suftin took it seriously and called the police.

By the time the cops arrived, Phuong had dropped the knife and was not armed, eyewitnesses told the newspaper.

However, the police reports say Phuong ignored their commands, prompting them to push him into the hallway, force him to the floor and attempt to handcuff him.

It was then, according to the Mercury, that another roommate started filming the officers whacking Phuong and electrocuting him with a Taser.

Reported by Thanh Nien staff