NEW LONDON, Conn. (AP) - New London police are conducting an internal investigation after a college student said officers beat, kicked and threatened him with mace after he helped a domestic violence victim at a dormitory.

New London Deputy Police Chief Peter Reichard tells The Day he launched the investigation after speaking to Connecticut College's dean of students on Monday.

Lee Messier, a junior from Narragansett, Rhode Island, was charged with interfering with police on Sunday. A Facebook post he wrote about his experience was shared widely. Messier's father is chief of airport police at T.F. Green Airport in Rhode Island and is retired from the state police.

The officer who arrested Messier was fired in 2013 for his involvement in an alleged beating and pepper spray incident. The department later rehired him.