Video shows two black cops use taser on handcuffed white woman as she sat on the ground in Michigan
The Flint Police Department denied any wrongdoing after video of two black cops from the force surfaced online, showing them tasing a white woman who had already been placed in handcuffs as she sat on the ground.
Officers were called to arrest the woman on Saginaw Street in the downtown area of the city on July 29 after she allegedly assaulted someone at a bar. She is facing charges for other accusations, such as assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, several news outlets report.
Bystander Amanda LaMielle, 47, captured footage of the arrest on Saginaw Street in the town’s downtown area and shared it on Facebook. The video shows a woman in handcuffs as two policemen stand next to her.
‘That’s where it begins,’ LaMielle told The Daily Beast, recalling the incident taking place at around 10.30pm.
‘When you see her feet go up … her body is just a noodle, and so her feet fall back down. She falls down to the ground,’ she added, as video shows both cops trying to lift the woman to put her in the patrol car.
An unidentified woman was tased twice while she was under arrest, as Flint Police Department said that she refused to follow orders and enter the patrol car of two policemen from the force on the night of July 29 on Saginaw Street in Flint, Michigan
The two policemen managed to get the unidentified suspect into the patrol car on their second attempt. Bystander Amanda LaMielle, 47, captured footage of the arrest and claimed the lady was tazed another time in the patrol car
LaMielle, 47, and an educator in the Genesee County, then claimed that both officers then got up close to the suspect, ‘hoping that nobody’s going to notice’ while they shocked her with a taser.
‘But obviously I did,’ LaMielle told The Daily Beast.
Footage from the arrest shows the woman yelling in agony as she is being tased while sitting on the street, shortly after refusing to get into the Flint Police patrol car and with her arms behind her back, already locked in handcuffs.
The two cops then try again and are lucky in their second attempt to get the woman into their vehicle.
LaMielle claims the suspect was tazed another time while finally sitting in the patrol car, although video doesn’t necessarily show that happened. Detective Sgt Tyrone Booth, spokesperson for the Flint Police Department, confirmed to The Daily Beast that the woman had been tased twice, although he failed to reveal exactly when that happened during the arrest.
The officers then closed the vehicle’s passenger door, as they got ready to leave the scene of the arrest.
LaMielle confronts them and asks for their identifications as well as their badge numbers but both policemen refuse to do follow her request before ignoring her.
Booth told The Daily Beast that ‘officers are required to identify themselves to the public,’ but that both cops on the night of the incident were ‘involved in quite a difficult situation.’
They were cleared of any wrongdoing after the department internally reviewed the incident. Booth refused to reveal the identities of the two policemen to The Daily Beast, as he told the outlet that he didn’t want to ‘debate.’
After witnessing the incident, LaMielle asked for both officers’ identification and badge on the point of their departure from the scene of arrest. The two cops refused to provide her any information
DailyMail.com has contacted The Flint Police Department for further comment, but did not manage to get a hold of someone on the force after several attempts.
‘After being told you’re placed under arrest, it’s not a suggestion, or an invitation to cooperate,’ Det. Sgt. Tyrone Booth with the Flint Police Department told WNEM.
‘An obligation at that point is to submit to that arrest and doing that by turning around and placing your hands behind your back and accepting the fact that handcuffs will be put on you,’ he added.
Booth further said that the officers did not infringe on their rights or use excessive force. However, he did reveal that the woman had kicked an officer in the face three times, although he did not reveal when exactly on the night of the arrest.
‘I think it’s enough for me to tell you why the charges are in place,’ he told The Daily Beast.
The woman was later booked into jail. It is unclear if she posted bond and if she has a trial date lined up.
The arrest remains under investigation.
