A largely white mob of Philadelphia police officers were caught on videotape yesterday kicking and beating a black man. Police said they believed Thomas Jones had been involved with a carjacking. During a high-speed chase, Jones’s car reportedly slammed into another vehicle, and police said they soon found themselves in a gun battle with him. Police say that after wounding an officer in the thumb, Jones allegedly jumped into a police car and drove off with officers in hot pursuit.

The cruiser, its rear window shot out, came to a stop a mile away. There, with a news helicopter recording the scene, more than a dozen police officers, some of them in civilian clothes, surrounded the cruiser with guns drawn, pulled the man from the car, kicked and beat him on the ground, and then led him away in handcuffs. Jones was later hospitalized in serious condition.

Philadelphia Mayor John Street and other top city officials scrambled to contain the situation, which has already drawn comparisons to the Rodney King beating. Police Commissioner John Timoney said three police investigations are under way: one by homicide detectives, who review all shootings of officers; a second by the internal affairs division into the possibility of excessive force; and a routine probe conducted whenever an officer fires a weapon.