The North Miami Police Department appears to be in disarray: In the past two years, the department failed a critical accreditation test and shot Charles Kinsey, an unarmed black man. After audio emerged last week of the department's chief describing widespread dysfunction among his cops, North Miami officials have been desperately trying to reassure the public that the force is fixing its problems.

Amid all of that turmoil, a North Miami cop was arrested Saturday on domestic violence charges. Police say the off-duty officer, Alfred Lamont Bryant, body-slammed his wife and smacked her head repeatedly on the floor in front of their three children.

According to a Miami-Dade County Police incident report, Bryant's wife called the cops around 7 p.m. Saturday to report she'd been assaulted. The report says Bryant, who is 43, has been with NMPD for 14 years.

"Upon uniform patrol's arrival, the victim advised that she was involved [in a] heated dispute with the defendant that escalated to a physical altercation," the report says. "The defendant was at the sink inside of the kitchen as the victim stood on the opposite side of the island as the defendant proceeded to throw soapy water in her face."

The report says Bryant's wife then grabbed a "small frying pan" to try to defend herself but simply waved it at her husband before she put it back down. Then, according to the report, Bryant, who stands five feet 11 inches tall and weighs 185 pounds, attacked with full force.

"The defendant then grabbed the victim around the neck, flipped her onto the floor, and struck her head on the floor twice," the report says. Bryant's family claims the cop "stopped the physical attack after the children began pleading with him to stop."

After the officers handcuffed Bryant and read him his rights, he told the cops that the fight began over whether the family would go out for dinner that night. Bryant claims his wife said she'd already eaten but had not yet fed their children. This, he said, made him upset.

But he claimed the rest of the fight wasn't his fault: He said he already had his hand in the sink, and when his wife grabbed the frying pan, he simply raised his hand to protect himself and accidentally splashed her. He also claimed his wife tried to come after him with the frying pan, and in self-defense, he "grabbed the victim['s] right wrist with his left hand and placed his right arm around her neck."

Then, he said, he and his wife simply slipped because they were both wearing socks.

But the cops didn't buy that argument, and Bryant was arrested on one count of domestic battery. The Dade County Police Benevolent Association, the union that represents North Miami cops, declined to comment.

The arrest couldn't come at a worse time for North Miami Police or public officials: The department is dealing with massive inter-departmental fallout after audio from police Chief Gary Eugene's testimony in the Kinsey case became public. Last week, New Times obtained the hourlong clip, which shows that police were warned that Kinsey, who was helping an autistic patient when cops shot him, did not have a gun, and neither did the autistic man. Instead, Eugene said the cops were warned that the autistic man was holding a toy truck.

Eugene also described a department in a state of chaos. The chief said there's so much animosity among his cops that he worries some won't even provide backup for others.