A Navy veteran, who was charged with resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer, is claiming she was a victim of police brutality, WTVD reports.
Some of the altercation between Stephanie Nickerson, 25, of Durham, North Carolina, and the police officer was caught on dark and blurry cell phone video.
A voice can be heard off-camera, yelling, “Don’t hit her man, don’t hit her. Come on bro, that’s a female.”
Nickerson said police came to her friend’s home Sunday morning after receiving a call about a disturbance, and they wanted to search the house. She told her friend she didn’t have to let police into the residence and that’s when the officer allegedly became aggressive.
“He was like ‘put your arms behind your back,’ and I jerked my arm away and said, ‘No, I haven’t done anything wrong.’ And immediately after I jerked my arm back he threw me on the ground. He held me by my neck, and punched me repeatedly in my face and head,” Nickerson told the local news.
One witness, Tahveya Platt, said, “He was hitting her with all his force. I could see him going all the way back, hitting her as hard as he could, and there was nothing I could do.”
Nickerson says the charge of assaulting an officer is not true.
“You can hear the officer. Even though he has his knee in my back and my face is in the ground, he says don’t hit me, don’t hit me. How am I hitting you when I’m down on the ground, pinned, beat up?” she asked.
Nickerson has filed a complaint with the police department. The incident is currently under investigation.
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