California cop put on leave after allegedly tickling feet of man killed by police

(Photo by John Moore/Getty Images) (2014 Getty Images)

A California cop who allegedly "loves playing with dead bodies" has been placed on administrative leave after purportedly tickling the feet of a man shot dead by police.

An internal affairs investigation is underway after a Bakersfield Police Officer Aaron Stringer was accused by a police department trainee of grabbing the head and touching the feet of Ramiro James Villegas, who was killed by police following a chase.

The trainee was apparently so disturbed by the act and comments that Stringer made that she reported it to her superiors, attorney Mark Geragos, who is representing Villegas' family in a claim against the department, told the Los Angeles Times.

"It's about the most ghoulish and disturbing behavior," Geragos added.

Geragos also said that the Bakersfield Police Department has shown "a pattern of shooting to kill" young, unarmed Latino men.

The Bakersfield Californian reported that Stringer pulled the corpse's toes and tried to turn his head and open his jaw, while making jokes about rigor mortis. The touching took place at the county coroner's office in November, as the body of Villegas "lay in a gurney covered in a blood-soaked white sheet," the newspaper stated.

The 22-year old Villegas was killed on November 13 of last year following a chase with police in which he crashed his mother's car into a light pole. Police apparently ordered Villegas out of the vehicle and then shot him multiple times.

Police allege that Villegas reached for his waistband, but witnesses claim that Villegas put his hands up and a weapon was never recovered from the scene. Villegas was tasered and shot nine times with bullets striking his head and genitals.

His family's claims against the police department say that Villegas was "left to die."

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