Officer Terry Mahan has been placed on administrative leave after a Tuesday incident in which he tased a woman in the back while she walked away from him.

The Tallahassee Police Department moved swiftly Wednesday to get out in front of its latest controversy — the tasing of a 61-year-old woman in the back as she walked away from an officer in the middle of a city street in broad daylight.

The incident, which was recorded by an onlooker with his cell phone, prompted TPD Chief Michael DeLeo to hold a middle-of-the-night news conference to announce that the officer involved, Terry Mahan, was being placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal-affairs investigation.

TPD also released the cell-phone video, posting it to the department’s YouTube channel. The nearly seven-minute video shows Mahan tasing Viola Young, who went motionless before falling face-first onto the pavement.

The incident, which happened about 5:20 p.m. on Dunn Street in Frenchtown, sparked vocal outrage among those who witnessed it. One woman can be heard on the video repeatedly screaming, “Oh my God!”

“They just tased a lady for nothing,” one man can be heard saying on the video. “They wonder why they’re hated.”

DeLeo, in the news conference, said that based on the video, he had “enough concerns” to place Mahan on leave and conduct an internal investigation.

“We will conduct a thorough investigation into this incident,” he said. “We want to be transparent with the community by sharing what we can at this point. The investigation will determine if the officer’s actions were legal and if those actions were consistent with the expectations I have set for our officers in terms of how we respect and treat our citizens.”

The incident was the latest to raise questions about TPD’s use-of-force tactics. Earlier this month, Tallahassee city commissioners voted to settle a federal lawsuit for $475,000 brought by Christina West, a Tallahassee woman who suffered broken bones and other injuries during her DUI arrest in August 2013.

In that case, which was also caught on video, West alleged her civil rights had been violated and excessive force used during her arrest, which happened after she crashed her SUV into an unoccupied home. Four officers were suspended and one, Chris Ormerod, was later fired, though TPD said it was over unrelated traffic crashes.

The West case led to the ouster of TPD Chief Dennis Jones. DeLeo, hired late last year, has since been trying to repair the Police Department’s relationship with the community. TPD also changed its use-of-force protocols, calling for officers to “de-escalate” encounters with citizens or suspects.

Robert A. “Gus” Harper III, a Tallahassee attorney representing Young, could not discuss the extent of her injuries. Young was treated at the scene before she was taken to the Leon County Jail on a charge of resisting an officer without violence. She was released after posting bail.

Harper said Young was “very emotional” after the incident and spent Wednesday with family. He added he was still trying to piece together what happened.

“I know what I’ve seen on the video,” he said. “My gut reaction is sort of like everyone else’s — it looks like an instrument that is used to deter violence is being used as a weapon. I think that goes against the spirit of the whole concept of Tasers.”

He couldn’t say whether Young would sue the Police Department, saying his foremost concern now is representing her in criminal proceedings.

“All options are on the table,” Harper said. “The big thing is we just want to make sure that these types of things don’t happen and that we can start rebuilding our trust in TPD.”

The Rev. Ernest Farrell, president of the Tallahassee Urban League, said Chief DeLeo emailed him about the tasing Wednesday morning.

“I think there has to be some serious sensitivity training with some of the officers,” Farrell said. “This kind of thing is unacceptable.”

Dale Landry, president of the Tallahassee branch of the NAACP, said the video appeared to show officers escalating the situation and losing control. He called for a quick investigation by TPD and said State Attorney Willie Meggs should drop charges against Young.

“We’ve got to change this culture,” Landry said. “It’s pervasive in police around the nation. We’ve seen it. We’ve got to change this culture where we have folks that are being hurt in this manner openly.”

Meggs said he wasn’t currently planning to take the incident to a grand jury for review, though he said, “It may develop so much public interest that I do.” He added that DeLeo called him Wednesday morning to tell him what happened.

He said DeLeo is doing his best “to get control of that agency and get it functioning properly.”

Mayor-elect Andrew Gillum, who was in Chattanooga, Tenn., as part of a multi-city tour to meet with mayors, said Wednesday afternoon that he had not yet seen the video. He said he found out about it via text message from City Manager Anita Favors Thompson and later talked to DeLeo.

“I stand 100-percent behind (DeLeo’s) actions,” Gillum said. “I have to believe that he has more access to more information than I do right now.”

City Commissioner Nancy Miller acknowledged that would harm public perception of the Police Department.

“We’re trying to build trust,” she said. “This is taking us in the wrong direction.”

City Commissioner Gil Ziffer said he was disturbed by the video footage and hoped TPD wouldn’t take long to determine exactly what happened.”

“I have great confidence in our chief of police,” Ziffer said. “I think he’s trying to develop policies that are right for our community.”