Authorities in a Delaware town released body camera footage that showed multiple cops punch a Black woman several times in the head during her arrest and use her locs to force her to the ground.
The arrest happened on June 29 in Bear, Delaware.
Cell phone video that circulated on social media captured part of the arrest when the cops were seen aggressively restraining the woman and punching her after she was wrestled to the ground.
The video spurred controversy online, prompting New Castle County authorities to release footage from the body cameras of all the officers involved in the arrest in an effort to shed more light on the incident.
Police say the arrest happened after one officer tried to pull the woman over for several traffic violations. After she pulled into a gas station parking lot, bodycam footage showed the cop exiting his vehicle and demanding she exit hers.
She refuses and asks why she’s being detained. The cop didn’t immediately list the multiple traffic violations as reasons for her detainment. Instead, he continued to order her to step out of her car and pulled her driver’s side door open.
The woman demands the officer call his supervisor. They get into a back-and-forth for a few minutes before backup arrives.
Three other cops are seen arriving and approaching the woman’s car. At that point, the cop who initiated the traffic stop orders the woman to exit her vehicle again and tries to grab her.
The woman clearly states she will get out herself and tells him not to touch her.
As she gets out of the car, all of the officers surround her, grab her, and try to arrest her simultaneously.
A struggle ensues as the officers and the woman grapple with each other.
The officers continue to bark orders at the woman, telling her to put her hands behind her back, stop resisting, and get on the ground.
“Give me a second, I’ll get on the ground,” the woman states.
The struggle continues until one officer grabs the woman by her locs as the other officers wrestle her to the ground.
Once they force her to the ground, the woman is seen lying on an officer’s foot while other officers restrain her. Another angle from a different bodycam showed the woman’s body was wrapped around his foot.
That officer yells, “Get off my foot!” and that’s when he and a female officer begin punching the woman in the head multiple times. Once his foot is free, it takes nearly another minute for the officers to handcuff the woman who is visibly angered and distressed by the event and starts swearing at the officers.
“This didn’t have to be like this,” one cop said.
“It didn’t? You f****** approached me aggressive as f***!” the woman yelled.
The video also shows the woman with blood from multiple scratches on her arm.
As they lift her off the ground, they escort her to a police vehicle. As police place her in the back seat, one officer tells her to put her feet in the car.
“Can you say please?” the woman repeatedly asks until the cops push her legs and feet into the SUV and shut the door.
The video ends at that point.
The woman’s identity hasn’t been released at this time. According to reporters with Delaware Online who obtained her arrest information, she was charged with two counts of offensive touching of a police officer, resisting arrest, and disorderly conduct. She also faces charges for several traffic offenses, including improper window tinting on the front and side windows and a canceled registration card.
“There is no justification for the assault to [the woman] by the officers,” the woman’s attorney, Emeka Igwe, said. “There isn’t a police training manual in the country that instructs officers to punch an unarmed woman multiple times in her face while she is completely restrained.”
New Castle County Police said they are conducting a use-of-force analysis with the video evidence from the officers’ body cameras. Officials have also launched an administrative investigation to determine whether the cops’ actions were within police policy.
The arrest was also referred to the Delaware Department of Justice, Office of Civil Rights and Public Trust.
