Report: Police recruit punched in head

NORFOLK, Va. (AP/WAVY) - Internal documents reveal that a Norfolk police recruit who died after a training injury was punched in the head by an instructor.

The 1,000 page report shows that 40-year-old John Kohn became woozy and incoherent after the punch during "ground fighting" training at the Norfolk Police Department Academy.

Kohn was injured during the police training on Dec. 9 and died in a hospital Dec. 18.

In the 911 tapes, Norfolk police said, "I have a head injury to a recruit with difficulty breathing." A dispatcher said, "The training center, apparently, one of the new recruits has a head injury."

Police officials originally said an accidental collision with another recruit during training was to blame for Kohn's injury.

The collision was caught on tape, but according to the new documents, the incident that hurt Kohn happened 11 minutes after the collision in the video.

According to the report, police recruits told investigators Kohn was injured during ground fighting and that he was beaten in the head by instructor, Leldon Sapp.

The recruits said Sapp and Kohn were fighting, but when Sapp landed a right punch on Kohn, Kohn's body went limp.

Sapp claims he was wearing boxing gloves and Kohn was wearing head gear.

He said that he struck Kohn, and Kohn's head snapped back.

Sapp said he hit Kohn two or three more times and that's when he became unresponsive.

Police did not comment on the information in the documents because a lawyer for Kohn's family has contacted the city attorney's office.