Women who fought security, claim police assaulted them
FORT WORTH, Texas Sept 13 2020— The Fort Worth Police Department is taking a closer look at a 15-second cellphone video involving one of their officers, who can be seen hitting and throwing a woman to the ground as he arrested her last weekend.
The video was taken outside of America Gardens in the West 7th area Friday, Sept. 4.
The officer had been flagged down by security at the southern grub and beer hangout spot when security detail struggled to remove a 28-year-old and 26-year-old woman from the establishment.
Per one of the women, who asked to remain anonymous, the pair was intoxicated and were getting a little rambunctious in America Gardens when they were asked to leave.
In the video, which gained a lot of traction on Twitter and Reddit, you see the 28-year-old woman on the ground outside the entrance as the officer struggles to put her in handcuffs.
The 26-year-old woman can be seen nearby partly in handcuffs, being held back by a security officer.
At one point, as the officer tried to detain the 28-year-old woman, someone can be heard saying, “stop resisting!” aloud.
Then, you can see the 26-year-old’s leg hit the officer in the face.
A spokesperson from Fort Worth PD told the Star-Telegram that the woman intentionally hit the officer in the head.
The officer then approached the 26-year-old, who was still being held by a security guard, and began to hit her before throwing her to the ground.
The woman had to get stitches on one of her knees.
In the background, you can hear someone say, “That cop needs to chill though, he needs to relax. That’s excessive.”
Both women were charged with disorderly conduct and public intoxication.
The 28-year-old was also hit with a resisting arrest charge, while the 26-year-old was charged with assault on a public servant.
Both women are now being represented by an attorney. A family member told WFAA that they formally filed a complaint against the officer this week.
One of the women told WFAA that the officer should be punished.
Fort Worth PD didn’t give WFAA the name of the officer but did confirm that the incident was being investigated.
The following statement was released by the department:
“On September 4th, 2020, the Fort Worth Police Department was notified of a video showing what appeared to be a Fort Worth police officer punching a woman while attempting to make an arrest. The department was able to confirm that the video was of an arrest from American Gardens on Morton St. from the previous evening. This incident is currently being reviewed by Internal Affairs and the officer’s chain of command.
The Fort Worth Police Department takes every use of force incident seriously and our policy requires that all use of force incidents be thoroughly reviewed by the involved officer’s chain of command and our use of force coordinator/use of force review board to ensure that all policies and procedures are followed. Additionally, we use this review process to identify any areas where we can improve our training and practices.”
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