An Ohio police chief deemed officers’ actions “appropriate” after viral video showed one of them punching a Black woman and the other holding her twin brother on the ground to arrest them Friday.
The twins shown in Toledo Police dash camera video of the incident were identified as 21-year-olds Jannah and Jabril Wyley, and the officers were identified as Jordan Schotter and Jon Gruenberg, according to NBC 24.
The incident also involved 22-year-old Quinlan Cook, who was driving a 2009 Ford Fusion when officers stopped him for a window tint violation around 5:30 p.m., the Toledo Blade reported.
He was also found to be driving with a suspended license, which led police to remove all occupants and search the car, the news outlet reported.
Jabril Wyley was riding shotgun in the car at the time of the stop, NBC reported.
Jannah wasn’t in the car, but she was seen in the video footage walking up to the area after Cook and Wyley were asked to step out of the car.
They did, according to the video.
The cops patted the men down against the trunk of the car, and Jannah could be heard yelling something as they did.
It’s unclear what she said, but one of the officers went to search the vehicle while the other appeared to be taking an item from her brother.
A baggie of marijuana was discovered in the vehicle’s center console, authorities told the Toledo Blade.
Jannah was shown walking closer to the car at that point, and one of the officers appeared to instruct her to move back.
She complied initially but walked closer to the officer when it appeared her brother was being handcuffed.
At that point, the officer searching the car had finished and was standing near the other officer at the trunk of the car.
“What is you doing?” Jannah was heard asking in the video.
One of the officers was shown pushing Jannah back and she returned the push with a swat at the officer’s arm and a couple steps closer to her brother, the video showed.
At that point, the officer tried to grab Jannah’s arms, but she jerked away and ended up against the car, the video showed.
“Get off of me,” she was heard yelling.
Both officers then took the twins down to the ground while Cook waited at the car.
The next moments in the encounter with the twins happened outside the view of the dash camera footage, but surveillance video police released to the media showed the encounter growing more physical.
Another police car arrived on the scene, and a cop ran out of the vehicle toward the officers holding Jabril on the ground. At least five witnesses were shown in the surveillance footage watching the encounter.
“Stop,” Jannah Wyley yelled at one point in the dash-camera footage.
“Get in the f—— car,” the officer responded. “Get in the car!”
“Can I please get my other shoe,” Jannah asked.
“I’ll get your other shoe. Get in the f—— car,” the officer yelled in response.
At that point, a door slammed and Jannah can be heard crying, screaming “please” and asking officers to “let me out of here.”
“You b—-,” she screamed between cries.
If authorities determine the officers used excessive force, Internal Affairs will investigate the incident, NBC reported.
“A detective told the defendant 11 times to get back and stay out of the investigation,” Toledo Police Chief George Kral told ABC affiliate WTVG.
“These two officers have two fighting subjects and there’s a third person they can’t keep their eye on because they are trying to control the two people who are resisting arrest.”
Kral said there was a “heightened danger” the incident.
“The community has questioned if the officer used excessive force in taking her down,” Kral said. “Sure. Obviously you call them hand stuns to get her under control. The public sees it as punches.
“Is there something else he could have done? Sure he could have maced her. He could have tazed her. He could have hit her with his asp, which are all much worse in my opinion [than] putting hands on someone.”
Jannah Wyley was charged with felony assault on a police officer and resisting arrest and is released on a supervised own recognizance bond, while her brother, charged with resisting, was released on recognizance, NBC 24 reported.
He is in the process of seeking a public defender, NBC reported.
