Pregnant Mississippi woman tased by police officer
A police officer in Pass Christian, Mississippi, has been accused of tasing a pregnant woman multiple times despite the woman’s pleas to the officer not to do just that because she was pregnant.
Aviana White was a passenger in her brother’s car when he was pulled over for speeding. Because her brother did not have a license on him, the officer asked White for her ID and information. The police have since said that she was trying to determine if she could drive the car home, but White insisted that she was not required to give the officer any information and refused to cooperate.
White’s mother, Mary Spear, was then called to come get them as the siblings agreed to stay in the car. However, at some point, both White and her brother, Miles Spear, got out of the car. Miles was arrested on disorderly conduct charges and put in the back of a patrol car, but White walked away from the scene, saying that she did not have to stay in the car and that she was not under arrest.
A witness, Alicia Burton, said that White was standing under a tree talking on her phone when the officer “got in her car, sped down to this girl, and the girl wasn’t going nowhere so it didn’t have to escalate the way it did. I feel it could have went totally different if (the officer) had handled it different.”
— Suicidal man doused in gasoline bursts into flames after police Taser him —
Burtn said that the officer “charged” toward White, who cried out, “Wait! I’m pregnant!” The officer grabbed her, and White continued to resist, pleading with him not to tase her because she was pregnant, with White’s mother and Burton both echoing the plea.
Despite this, according to Burton, the officer “went to tasing that girl all over her body.”
White requested to be taken to the hospital, and she was checked over and released. However, she did not arrive at the police department on Tuesday morning as she was supposed to, and police later arrested her for a felony charge of assaulting a police officer.
“She was very defiant with the officer, and that’s what led up to this,” Police Chief Tim Hendricks said. “The officer asked her repeatedly to stay in the car and she refused to do that.”
He added, “I think the charges are justified.”
However, the situation is under review, though the officer is still working in the meantime.
More About:News
You Might Like
