**UPDATE**
The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office provided Atlanta Black Star with the following statement:
“Deputies had lawful reason to enter the residence and search for Tevin Turner. Had Barbara Pinkney complied with the deputies orders, none of this would have happened. From everything we can see at this point, it appears the deputy did what he had to do. We take allegations of excessive force seriously, which is why we have opened an internal investigation to gather all the facts.”
**ORIGINAL STORY**
A Florida grandmother says she’s still shaken up after she was struck three times with a stun gun by officers when she refused to allow them into her home to search for her grandson.
Barbara Pinkney, 70, of Bradenton recalled the moment Manatee County deputies came knocking on her door Thursday with an arrest warrant for her grandson, Tevin Turner. Per the probable cause affidavit obtained by local station WFLA, authorities were there to serve Turner a warrant for reportedly violating his probation by carrying a concealed weapon.
Barbara Pinkney, 70, is charged with obstruction and assault on a police officer. (Photo: Manatee County Sheriff’s Office)
“We heard a knock at the door,” Pinkney said. “Actually, it wasn’t a knock. I think they kicked the door. Bam! Bam! At the door.”
Deputies demanded to know her grandson’s whereabouts and asked to search her home. But Pinkney said she refused to let officers in because Turner doesn’t live there and had only used her address.
“When he was on probation he gave this as his address, but he wasn’t living here,” she explained.
Deputies’ violent takedown of the elderly woman was captured by Elizabeth Francisco, who is identified by WFLA as the older woman’s granddaughter-in-law. In the video, Pinkney is seen trying to shut the door on officers when one of them forces his way in, grabs her by the wrist and warns that she is headed to jail. The grandmother is then tased and forced to the ground.
“I was just hollering. I was scared.” Pinkney recalled of the incident, which unfolded one day after Christmas. “I didn’t know what else to do.”
According to the affidavit, Pinkney shoved an officer and was shocked three times with the taser in her left arm and upper back after the weapon was ineffective in subduing her. Authorities “took her to the ground,” with one pinning Pinkney to the ground with his knee while another deputy placed her in handcuffs, the police documents state.
The elderly woman would spend her 70th birthday in jail. Pinkney, who said she’s never had any trouble with the law, was arrested and charged with obstruction and battery on a law enforcement officer.
Authorities searched her home but didn’t find Turner at his grandmother’s residence, though the affidavit suggests he could have fled the scene during all the “chaos” at the front door.
Pinnkey said she’s still rattled by the incident.
“I don’t know. Whenever I see police I just try to not look at them,” she told WFLA through tears.
Pinkney is scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 17.
Watch more in the video below.
