Deaths and Injuries in Police Custody

[Andrea]

Unable to Pay $100 Bail, Homeless Man Dies in New Hampshire Jail

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/02/us/unable-to-pay-100-bail-homeless-man-dies-in-new-hampshire-jail.html

In their last conversation, Jeffrey Pendleton told his father that he was doing well, living in New Hampshire with a woman and working at a Burger King restaurant.

About four months later, a different story unfolded. Mr. Pendleton was homeless, and on March 13 he was found dead in a jail cell in Manchester, where he was being held for a misdemeanor because he could not pay the $100 bail.

“The police told me to talk to the detective in New Hampshire,” Mr. Pendleton’s father, Joseph, said Friday from his home in Palestine, Ark. “He said they did a cell check, and found him unconscious. Then two hours later he was dead.”

His family buried him last week in Palestine, but the authorities are still investigating how the 26-year old black man who had no known health problems died so suddenly.

“They said they did not find anything wrong with the body, that he shouldn’t have been dead,” the elder Mr. Pendleton said he was told by the coroner. “What they found was a healthy 26-year old man.”

Jennie V. Duval, the deputy chief medical examiner working on his case, said Mr. Pendleton’s autopsy was inconclusive and the official cause of death was awaiting the toxicology report, with blood test results not expected for four weeks.

“There was no naked eye evidence of trauma or disease,” Ms. Duval said. “We definitely ruled out foul play.”

Mr. Pendleton’s death has drawn attention to New Hampshire’s practice of putting in jail people who cannot make bail, often on misdemeanor charges. As The New York Times has reported in a series of reports, specialists say the money-based bail system in the United States routinely means that poor defendants are punished before they get their day in court, often keeping them incarcerated longer than if they had been convicted right away.

Last month, the Justice Department sent a letter asking state chief justices and court administrators around the country to change their practices on fines and fees. The aim, it said, was to avoid the harm that falls on people who are unable to pay, and who “lose their jobs and become trapped in cycles of poverty that can be nearly impossible to escape.”

The department urged the courts to consider alternatives to jail for defendants unable to pay fines and fees.

“Bail that is set without regard to defendants’ financial capacity can result in the incarceration of individuals not because they pose a threat to public safety or a flight risk, but rather because they cannot afford the assigned bail amount,” the letter said.

Mr. Pendleton was arrested on March 8 at about 10 p.m. at a house in Nashua, where the police were sent to help probation and parole officers. Officers discovered two warrants for Mr. Pendleton’s arrest for nonpayment of fines: one for disorderly conduct and the other for a city ordinance violation, said Capt. Eric Nordengren of the Nashua police.

Mr. Pendleton was taken to the Nashua police station, where they found a small quantity of marijuana, and then to the county jail in Manchester, Captain Nordengren said. In a preliminary appearance in Nashua District Court, his bail was set at $100, which he was unable to pay.

Then on March 13, Mr. Pendleton was found unconscious in his cell at 2:45 p.m. and could not be revived; he was pronounced dead at 3:19 p.m., the jail said in a statement. “There appeared no indication that Mr. Pendleton was in any form of distress,” David Dionne, the jail superintendent, said in a report by The Union Leader.

A court document said that Mr. Pendleton was to have been held on the “act prohibited” misdemeanor charge until a hearing on April 7.

“That’s approximately one month,” said Gilles Bissonnette, a director for the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire who had provided Mr. Pendleton with legal support. “At that point, he would have effectively served his sentence before he ever had an opportunity to contest the charge — an outcome that only a poor person would be confronted with.”

Mr. Pendleton’s ordeal also garnered some attention because he had previously won settlements worth thousands of dollars against two New Hampshire cities for run-ins with the police.

The City of Nashua agreed to pay $15,000 to settle a civil claim by the A.C.L.U. and Mr. Pendleton after he was arrested in 2014 for walking in a public park, according to a copy of the settlement provided by Mr. Bissonnette. About $10,315 went to Mr. Pendleton and the rest to the A.C.L.U. in New Hampshire.

The following year, the City of Hudson agreed to pay $37,500 to settle a lawsuit filed by the A.C.L.U. for Mr. Pendleton that said the police issued him a summons for panhandling, which they said was illegal. Mr. Pendleton was allotted about $7,000 of that money.

According to the Hudson lawsuit, Mr. Pendleton arrived in the Nashua area in 2009 and worked in low-wage jobs at fast-food restaurants. He had been homeless since a divorce in 2013, then lost his job and started sleeping in the woods.

Mr. Bissonnette said his office did not have significant contact with Mr. Pendleton after the cases were resolved with settlements. Asked why Mr. Pendleton was unable to pay the $100 bail last month, he said, “I don’t know that answer.”

[*Anya*]

A Sheriffs Deputy was trying to serve an eviction notice and a female pit bull ran up and barked at the deputy when he entered the dog's yard.

The dog didn't attack the Deputy, just barked at him.

[Andrea]

Parents called 911 to help suicidal daughter — and ‘police ended up putting a bullet in her’

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/04/06/parents-called-911-to-help-suicidal-daughter-and-police-ended-up-putting-a-bullet-in-her/?postshare=1821459940964031&tid=ss_tw

Melissa Boarts’s family was frantic to find her.

They said the 36-year-old suffered from manic depression and had been threatening to slit her wrists when she jumped into her car Sunday and went for a drive down Interstate 85, toward Auburn, Ala.

Her twin told the Montgomery Advertiser that she started tracking her sister’s movements via GPS and calling out the route to their parents. At one point, they caught a glimpse of her SUV before she disappeared.

Finally, she stopped.

“We were afraid she was going to hurt herself,” her mother, Terry Boarts, told the newspaper. “We figured she was going to bleed out right there.”

The parents called 911 for help.

But instead of assisting, “police ended up putting a bullet in her,” they said in a statement issued by the family’s attorney.

Auburn police said Melissa Boarts charged at them with an unidentified weapon Sunday, prompting an officer to open fire and kill her.

Now the family is pursuing legal action.

Julian McPhillips, the attorney for the family, told The Washington Post on Tuesday that the parents believe Boarts may have had a pocket knife — “but certainly no gun” — and argued that shooting her was “totally unjustified.”

“They are all deeply mourning and deeply hurt,” McPhillips said of her family.

Boarts is one of at least 262 people who have been fatally shot by police so far in 2016, according to a Washington Post database. At least 41 of those killed by police were carrying a knife or other blade, and about a quarter of all police shooting victims were mentally ill or experiencing an emotional crisis.

People with untreated mental illness are 16 times as likely to be killed during a police encounter as other civilians approached or stopped by law enforcement, according to a study from the Treatment Advocacy Center.

McPhillips said the Boarts family intends to pursue the case “very vigorously,” demanding dash-camera and body-camera footage from the scene.

“It’s difficult to get true justice,” he said, “because you can’t bring somebody back to life.”

After Melissa Boarts disappeared Sunday, her mother went looking for her, with her 2-year-old granddaughter in tow.

“We were able to find out she was headed on the interstate going to Auburn,” Terry Boarts told the Montgomery Advertiser. “She was threatening to slit her wrists with a knife.”

Terry Boarts told the newspaper that she called police and told them her daughter was “having mental issues — that she was bipolar, that she had been really depressed, that she was saying she was going to cut her wrists.”

She said she told the authorities that her daughter had a knife.

Auburn police said officers responded at about 3:40 p.m. to a call about a suicidal motorist on Interstate 85 and followed the vehicle until the driver stopped on Red Creek Road in Macon County.

Police said she “exited the vehicle armed with a weapon and charged the officers in a threatening manner at which time the officers discharged their weapons, striking the driver.”

The Macon County Coroner told Al.com that Boarts died from a single gunshot wound.

Police vehicles, a helicopter and ambulances swarmed the scene, according to reports.

The Boarts family told the Montgomery Advertiser they were informed there had been a fatality.

“We’re still assuming the road ended and she hit a tree,” Terry Boarts told the newspaper. “They never told us she had been shot.”

The woman’s twin sister, Melinda Boarts, said police finally came back and said “they shot her.”

Her father, Michael Boarts, who worked 25 years as an officer for the Alabama Department of Corrections, said it was “absolutely outrageous.”

“There was absolutely no justification for it and we are all in deep mourning,” Michael Boarts said in the statement through the family’s attorney.

Since January 2015, The Post has tracked more than 1,100 fatal shootings by on-duty police officers, with one in four involving someone who was either in the midst of a mental health crisis or was explicitly suicidal. A Post analysis has found that in half of those cases, the officers involved were not properly trained to deal with the mentally ill — and in many cases, officers responded with tactics that quickly made a volatile situation even more dangerous.

Auburn police called it a “tragedy for the Boarts family as well as the officers involved.”

“Officers within the Auburn Police Division have encountered thousands of situations involving those with weapons or individuals intending to harm themselves,” police said in a statement. “It has been nearly 40 years since an Auburn Police Officer was required to use force that ended in the death of another. It is unfortunate when someone intends to harm themselves and involves law enforcement to do so.

“Officers within the Auburn Police Division are trained to deal with disturbed individuals and have experience in doing so.”

The State Bureau of Investigations, Macon County Sheriff’s Department and Macon County Coroner’s Office are investigating the incident, according to news reports. Findings will be released to the Macon County District Attorney.

[Andrea]

Family of woman who died in Los Angeles jail disputes coroner's suicide report

http://abc7.com/news/family-of-woman-who-died-in-la-jail-disputes-coroners-suicide-report-/1273367/

Family and friends demanded answers outside the Los Angeles Police Department's Metropolitan Detention Center Friday night after 36-year-old Wakiesha Wilson was found dead in her jail cell.

Coroner's officials say Wilson hanged herself, but her family says that makes no sense.

"I don't believe that, my daughter would not kill herself. It's not like this is the first time she's been incarcerated. No, she had too much to live for," said Wilson's mother, Lisa Hines.

Wilson had a 13-year-old son, and her family says she was not suicidal.

Her family last spoke to her on Easter morning. They say they went over details of her hearing, which was scheduled for Tuesday. She was expected to be released and told them she would call back later that night, but she never did.

"She planned on coming to my house. She told us to come to court because she was coming back home with me," Wilson's cousin, Quanesha Francis, said in tears.

Her family went to court Tuesday, but Wilson never appeared. After repeatedly trying to get an answer as to where Wilson was, her mother says she was given a number on Wednesday and was asked to call the coroner's office.

"They knew when I was at court. They knew Monday when I called. They knew Monday because she died Sunday," Hines said.

An attorney hired by Wilson's family, Jaaye Person-Lynn, says he wants to know why the department never notified her family and says there are serious questions about what may have happened prior to Wilson's death.

"We know there was some kind of disagreement with a detention officer or an LAPD officer. We know that after that disagreement she passed away," Person-Lynn said.

The attorney says Wilson was bipolar but believes that had nothing to do with her death. The LAPD says it can't comment on the ongoing investigation.

[Andrea]

Video shows San Antonio school officer body-slamming girl

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/video-shows-san-antonio-school-officer-body-slamming-girl/?linkId=23139802

Officials in San Antonio were investigating video that apparently shows a school district police officer body-slamming a middle school student to the ground.

In the video, a uniformed officer is seen struggling with a girl, then slamming her to the ground. The officer appears to handcuff the girl before having her stand and leading her away.

Gloria Valdez, the 12-year-old girl's mother, told CBS affiliate KENS it was completely uncalled for.

"Supposedly he was threatened by her that she kicked him, but in the video her legs never went up," Valdez said.

Valdez's daughter did not want to go on camera but told KENS that she was having a conversation with another girl when a crowd surrounded them. She said that's when the officer put his hands on her.

"All he had to is grab her and put her to the side," Valdez said.

A spokeswoman for the San Antonio Independent School District said the officer has been placed on paid leave.

Leslie Price told the San Antonio Express-News that the video posted online shows part of a verbal confrontation between two students at Rhodes Middle School on March 29.

The district did not identify the officer or the student. The person who posted the video said the officer was Joshua Kehm.

"This video is very concerning, and we are working to get all of the details," Price told the newspaper. "We certainly want to understand what all occurred, and we are not going to tolerate excessive force in our district."

Valdez said the force was so powerful it knocked her daughter out.

"She was, I guess, unconscious. She doesn't remember being arrested with handcuffs," Valdez noted. "[She's] bruised because of how she was hit on the cement."

Valdez just hopes something good will come out of this

"I just want justice for my daughter," Valdez said. "How do we know this officer won't do it again to another student."

[Andrea]

Cops, K9 Attacked This Man and They’re Covering Up His Death

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/04/07/cops-k9-attacked-this-man-and-they-re-covering-up-his-death.html?source=socialflow&via=twitter_page&acco unt=thedailybeast&medium=twitter

When police came to Pamela White’s work on March 31 last year, they told her that her son had died of a heart attack on his way to the hospital.

What they didn’t say was that Phillip White died after Vineland, New Jersey police officers Louis Platania and Rich Janasiak tackled him and sicced their canine on him.

Since then, authorities in Cumberland County have refused to provide Pamela with an autopsy for her 32-year-old son because of the ongoing investigation.

“I just went ballistic and started crying,” she remembers of the day police showed up at her work with the grim news.

911 audio released the week after Phillip’s death showed police were called because White was acting strangely and yelling in the street. People started coming out of their homes when they heard the commotion and at least two began filming when officers arrived and got rough with Phillip. (A truck driver passing by leaned out of his window to tell the officers to lay off, Pamela said.)

In one recording, an officer straddles White and punches him as the police dog is called over. Both officers continue to assail White, who was not armed. Toward the end of the video, White can be seen panting heavily as the police dog pulls at his arm, flailing limply.

“Yo, get that dog off of him,” one of the men recording the scene says. “He’s knocked out!”

“He’s not even moving,” the man continues. “Get that dog off of him!”

“I haven’t seen it,” Pamela said with disgust of the video. “Whenever it pops up I just click away from it. I know what I know from what everyone has told me, and that’s more than enough.”

In addition to roughly handling White, the cops then tried to cover up the incident.

“You see what happened? All of it?” one officer asks a bystander. When the person confirms that the arrest was recorded, the cop replies, “I’ll need your information and I’m going to take your phone.”

Filming police as long as you aren’t interfering with them is legal in New Jersey, which even the president of the New Jersey Fraternal Order of Police recognizes.

In a second video, White is seen turned over onto his stomach and straddled again as an officer handcuffs him. What is not seen is when or how he was put into an ambulance. More importantly, however, is what we don’t have: an autopsy.

“It took a long time until we were even able to get the death certificate in this case,” said Stanley King, attorney for the White family. King says the police dog bit White’s upper torso, and we can see in the video the dog also bit his arm.

More than a year later, authorities in Vineland, New Jersey continue to refuse releasing Phillip’s autopsy or even his official cause of death to his family. The excuse is that autopsy results could taint a potential grand jury pool reviewing the death, but that didn’t stop the officers’ attorneys from publicly speculating that White was on PCP.

“We expect that the autopsy will demonstrate there was nothing physical about his person that caused his death,” the attorney told the press on April 8 last year, noting the “super-human strength” that comes with PCP use.

Harold Shapiro of the Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office, who is in charge of the investigation, had no comment when asked if it was possible that the attorney could have viewed White’s autopsy before the family does. But one thing about the attorney’s statement is clear: he is working with more information about White’s death than his own family.

Shapiro also would not say whether a grand jury has been convened to consider possible charges against the officers—despite a July 2015 directive from the New Jersey attorney general that states a grand jury of 23 citizens must be convened when police use deadly force, save a few circumstances.

Shapiro, as he has for the last year, simply repeated his no comment mantra.

“I cannot comment on anything involved with this because it is an ongoing investigation.”

Still, Pamela waits.

“Under any circumstances it would be hard, but for him to be gone in the manner that he was taken, it just breaks my heart,” she told The Daily Beast of her son. “I feel that Phillip should be here with me.”

If White died of a heart attack—as police initially told his mother—and if he attacked police as some have claimed, the officers will likely not be charged when the Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office finally releases its decision.

But why sit on an autopsy report that confirms this for more than a year?

“I’m sure they are waiting for the public furor to die down, and that’s normally the case in these types of situations.” King said. “I’m extremely nervous that this year of this investigation does not bode well for Mr. White.”

A prosecutor or the attorney general’s office can refuse to release autopsy results if an ongoing investigation is underway, according to a 2005 New Jersey law. The Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office cited that law in its denial of The Daily Beast’s request for White’s autopsy report last June.

Both the 2005 law and the 2015 directive firmly state that zero information regarding a police use of force incident should be released while the investigation is ongoing, hence Shapiro’s tight-lipped treatment of the case. Both also firmly state that anyone found to have leaked information should be legally punished. Maybe that will apply to the officers’ attorney, maybe it will not.

“They had their little smear campaign,” Pamela says.

Cumberland County Prosecutor Jennifer Webb-McRae recused herself from the case because she knows Pamela White personally, so the task fell on Shapiro, the assistant prosecutor.

“I’ve been hearing literally for months now that they’re hoping to be able to release the findings in no short order however I’ve seen nothing,” said King, the attorney for the White family. “I am at a loss as to why this investigation has taken so long.”

Shapiro’s own office has shown it can conclude a use of force investigation in a more reasonable amount of time. It took the Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office eight months to determine that the officers involved in Jerame Reid’s death in nearby Bridgeton, New Jersey should not be charged. The office refused to release any information about the incident at the time, because it said a grand jury would look into Reid’s death.

But we don’t know if a grand jury has been convened for White. A simple yes or no question was met with untold variations of “no comment” on Tuesday by Shapiro. The 2015 directive requires grand juries “unless the undisputed facts of the case indicate that the use of force was justified under the law.”

King believes the facts surrounding White’s death are far from undisputed.

“I have no doubt that the force that was used was unreasonable and excessive,” he said.

As the one-year anniversary of her son’s passing came and went, Pamela White has waited. Meanwhile Shapiro has refused to answer any questions regarding the case over the past year, and the cause of Phillip’s death remains a matter of pure speculation.

“It just hurts me to see my grandchildren crying,” she said of Phillip’s fatherless children. “It hurts for me to sit here expecting a knock on the door, for him to come knocking and asking what I’m cooking, or for him to call me. It’s just traumatizing; there’s no other way to put it.

“My life has been forever changed by his death.”

Still, she waits.

[*Anya*]

Judge clears cop of sex assault of colleague's 9-year-old, orders counseling

By Steve Schmadeke
Chicago Tribune

A Cook County judge who had cleared a longtime Chicago police sergeant of the sexual assault of a colleague's young daughter, convicting him instead of misdemeanor battery, ordered the cop Wednesday to undergo up to two years of sex offender counseling.

In explaining the unusual move, Judge Charles Burns said prosecutors had failed at trial to prove, as required by law, that Dennis Barnes fondled the girl for his own sexual arousal, yet the judge said he believed "something was going on, and that's something that I find disturbing."

The alleged victim's mother, herself a Chicago police officer who had invited Barnes to her home for the first time for a family barbecue, blasted the judge's decision, saying she felt Barnes had been given preferential treatment because he was a Chicago cop.

"I couldn't believe it, I couldn't believe it because of all the evidence," she said, wiping away tears after court Wednesday as she recalled the judge's decision to find Barnes guilty of a lesser, nonsexual offense after a short bench trial in January. "The judge even admitted that it disgusted him, so why would you say it's only a misdemeanor battery?"

The Tribune is not naming the mother or her daughter because of the sexual nature of the allegations. The girl was 9 at the time of the alleged assault in August 2014.

Barnes was charged with felony attempted predatory criminal sexual assault and aggravated criminal sexual abuse. The 27-year department veteran resigned from the force three months after he was charged, a police spokesman said.

Barnes apologized Wednesday to the judge but said his actions that day were accidental. His attorney, Michael Clancy, told the judge his client had been drinking for hours that day.

"I'm deeply, deeply regretful," said Barnes, 63. "Whatever it was, was an accident, but I feel sorry for her."

The judge rejected that claim in sentencing Barnes to 60 days in Cook County Jail in addition to placing him on intensive probation intended for sex offenders for two years. In addition to counseling, Barnes will undergo a psychological evaluation to determine if he has pedophile tendencies or other issues.

"I don't believe this was incidental contact," Burns said. "I don't believe it was an accident."

Barnes two weeks before reporting to jail but ordered that he immediately be placed on electronic monitoring.

Prosecutors alleged that Barnes was "grooming" the girl for the alleged assault after arriving at the family's home, reading a book with her for an hour and letting her play with his cellphone before sitting next to her on the couch as she watched a movie with her brother, then 15.

He massaged her feet, rubbed her legs and then reached into her shorts and attempted to sexually assault her, prosecutors alleged. When her mother entered the room, the girl began crying and told her what had happened.

"(Barnes) told the victim that he was her mother's boss," Assistant State's Attorney Tracy Senica told the judge. "And she testified that she didn't scream because she didn't want to get her mom into trouble."

The mother was outraged that Barnes escaped a sex-related felony conviction, saying she felt any "normal citizen" wouldn't have caught such a break. She also was disappointed with the 60-day sentence.

"I mean I've never heard of anybody being charged with two felony sexual charges and then getting a misdemeanor battery," she said. "I've never heard of that, and I've been doing this job a long time."


http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...406-story.html

[Andrea]

San Francisco police shoot, kill homeless man with knife

http://www.kcra.com/news/san-francisco-police-shoot-kill-homeless-man-with-knife/38929690?utm_source=Social&utm_medium=FBPAGE&utm_c ampaign=KCRA%203&Content%20Type=Story

San Francisco Police officers shot and killed a homeless man carrying a knife, the third fatal shooting of a minority suspect without a gun over the last two years.

The shooting Thursday morning in the city's Mission District neighborhood comes amid the department's attempt to reform its "use-of-force" policies and repair an image battered by two separate incidents of officers exchanging racist and homophobic text messages.

San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr says two officers shot the unidentified Latino man after he refused demands to drop a knife and after the suspect was shot four times with nonlethal beanbags.

The incident was the second fatal shooting of a knife-wielding suspect since December. The previous shooting of knife-wielding black man along with the fatal shooting of a Latino man carrying a stun gun In March 2014 and the recent texting scandals has led to several protests, calls for the chief's firing and wrongful death lawsuits.

The U.S. Department of Justice recently agreed to requests from Suhr and Mayor Ed Lee to review the department's procedures and policies. Suhr has called in outside law enforcement experts to help the department develop less lethal responses to suspects not carrying guns.

The latest incident began Thursday morning when city homeless outreach officials checking on residents living in tents called police to report a man carrying a knife, Suhr said. Suhr didn't identify the man, who officers reported charging at them before firing.

Seven bullets casings were found and the kitchen knife recovered, Suhr said. The blade was 10 inches to 12 inches long, and witnesses described it as a chef's knife, he said.

Two witnesses say a language barrier may have contributed to the shooting. John Visor and Stephanie Grant said they lived in a tent in the same encampment as the suspect and say he spoke only Spanish and that the officers barked their commands to drop the knife in English.

Visor, 33, and Grant, 31, say the man was confused and walking in a circle when the officers hit him with the beanbags and then opened fire with guns. They say the man had stuffed the knife into his waistband before he was shot.

"Everybody carries something for protection here," Visor said. "He didn't have the knife in his hand when he was shot."

Visor and Grant knew the man only as Jose. They said Jose liked to collect bottles and cans for recycling and enjoyed kicking a soccer ball, sometimes late into the night and to the occasional annoyance of pedestrians.

"He never hurt anybody," Visor said. "He just liked to pick up cans."

The mayor said in a statement that "we are all striving to make sure officer involved shootings are rare and only occur as a last resort." Lee said he has requested an independent investigation from the Office of Citizen complaints in addition to the customary investigations by the Police Department and district attorney.

The last previous fatal shooting that involved San Francisco police occurred on Dec. 2, when five officers fatally shot Mario Woods 20 times, including six times in the back, in an incident caught on video.

Woods' family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit.

On Wednesday, the city's police commission agreed to reconsider its ban on arming San Francisco police officers with stun guns because of the Woods incident and the 2014 police shooting death of Alex Nieto, a college student carrying a stun gun that officers mistook for a handgun. Nieto carried a stun gun for his job as a security guard.

A federal grand jury earlier this year ruled the officers acted appropriately and refused to award Nieto's family any damages after a trial in San Francisco.

San Francisco is one of only two of the nation's largest cities in the country that do not equip officers with stun guns.

[Andrea]

Man with knives killed by Sacramento police; 3 officers on leave

http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article70710997.html

A use of force investigation is underway after Sacramento police shot and killed a man armed with knives whom officers say came toward them in an aggressive manner Friday morning in South Sacramento.

Three police officers who fired shots during the incident are on administrative leave, according to the police department.

The incident started with reports of a man acting suspiciously. He was detained, but escaped custody and was later shot on a nearby street. The man was killed. The officers were uninjured, said Sacramento police spokesman Sgt. Bryce Heinlein.

As soon as they opened the door he took off running

Resident Jeffery Jones, describing how a man escaped from the rear of a police car. The man was soon after shot and killed by police

Police said the incident began on the 7600 block of Prescott Way, which is in the Parkway neighborhood near Mack Road and Center Parkway.

At around 6:30 a.m. Friday , longtime area resident Jeffery Jones said he saw a man wandering the neighborhood looking drugged and confused.

“I said ‘What can I do for you,’ ” Jones said. “He said ‘I’m lost.”

The man walked away, but continued looking into homes, Jones said.

At around 8 a.m., officers arrived, questioned the man and then placed him in the back of a patrol car. As they were still trying to determine whether a crime had been committed, the man was not handcuffed, said department spokeswoman Traci Trapani. Jones said as they were taking his statement, the man started violently kicking at the windows.

“As soon as they opened the door he took off running,” Jones said.

The officers followed in their patrol cars, but the man eluded them by climbing into backyards, police said.

Police said the man jumped from one backyard to another and broke into at least one home. A woman, who was in her backyard when the man came over the fence with a meat cleaver and a butcher knife, screamed before running inside and locking the sliding glass door, Trapani said.

The man followed, breaking the glass, sending the fleeing woman out the front door where she called for help, Trapani said.

Later the man appeared from behind a parked car and confronted officers.

“ At that point he verbally challenged the officers and at that point officers fired their weapons,” Heinlein said. “He was struck and he is deceased.”

Heinlein said he the man took an “aggressive stance” towards the officers, but couldn’t say how close the suspect was to the officers or whether the man was charging at the officers.

It’s not yet known how many shots were fired. Representatives from the Sacramento County District Attorney’s office will review the circumstances of the shooting.

The sprawling crime scene set the neighborhood abuzz as people nearby speculated on whether the use of lethal force was justified.

“Terrible” was the conclusion reached by area resident Wendell Smith, who said officers should have disarmed the man.

“If it were a gun its a different story,” Smith said.

Sandy Keller, who was in the area to drop off her kids at choir and drama rehearsal, leaned more toward trusting the cops’ instinct and training.

“I’m not going to make a judgment against a police officer,” Keller said, noting that a California Highway Patrol officer was badly injured in Sacramento Thursday by a motorist who allegedly ran over him on purpose.

“We don’t know the whole story,” Keller said. “Obviously the officers felt justified.”

[Andrea]

Former South Carolina police officer pleads guilty in fatal shooting of black man, gets probation

http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20160411/PC16/160419852/former-south-carolina-police-officer-pleads-guilty-in-fatal-shooting-of-black-man

A white former North Augusta police officer pleaded guilty Monday to misconduct in office after fatally shooting an elderly black motorist two years ago, a case that raised questions about deadly force tactics and the public’s right to see dashcam videos of police shootings.

A judge sentenced Justin Craven, 27, to three years of probation and 80 hours of community service after he entered the plea in the death of Ernest Satterwhite, 68, the Aiken Standard reported.

In video released by the State Law Enforcement Division, Justin Craven can be seen rushing toward the driver’s side of the car, lunging in for a split second and then pulling back to fire.

In announcing a penalty that included no imprisonment, the judge said the shooting wasn’t like other officer-involved killings that have garnered notoriety in recent years, alluding to Walter Scott’s death last year in North Charleston.

Yet family members and their lawyer who had seen the video have said it was just as disturbing. Rep. Joe Neal, D-Hopkins, saw the video months ago and said it shows Craven had no business getting probation.

“The reality is that he murdered that man, in my opinion, and got away with it,” said Neal, a black Democrat who has spent decades speaking out against racism in law enforcement and demanding accountability through data and police cameras.

A video released by the State Law Enforcement Division to The Post and Courier showed Craven following a Chrysler Sebring weaving through traffic and then onto a dirt road. Satterwhite then parked next to his house, and Craven can be seen rushing toward the driver’s side of the car, lunging in for a split-second and then pulling back to fire.

After the guilty plea, Craven’s attorney told The Associated Press his client shouldn’t have run up to Satterwhite’s car at the end of the 13-minute chase.

“His mistake in judgment was approaching the car and getting too close. He had to make a split-second decision instead of like now, when everyone gets all the time they want to analyze it.” Jack Swerling said his client thought about going to trial to clear his name but feared that would be difficult with several other police shootings in the news.

The Satterwhite shooting highlighted a nationwide problem uncovered by The Post and Courier last year: officers who fire into cars to stop suspects.

The newspaper’s “Shots Fired” analysis found that officers routinely said they fired because they feared for their lives. But a closer inspection of many of these cases showed that officers were in little or no danger.

Criminal justice experts say departments should prohibit officers from firing at vehicles and instead train them to get out of the way.

Like many other police shootings, Satterwhite’s death also raised questions about whether videos should be released quickly to the public. Authorities had kept dashboard camera footage under wraps for more than two years, a delay that some argued violates the state’s Freedom of Information Act. Neal said the failure to release the footage “smacks of a cover-up.”

Craven’s guilty plea came as the General Assembly is considering a bill requiring dashcam footage to be released immediately when it “involves an officer involved incident resulting in death, injury, property damage, or the use of deadly force.” The Senate passed the bill last week, and the House is expected to take it up this week.

The shooting stems from the night of Feb. 9, 2014, when Craven spotted a Chrysler Sebring that veered in and out of a lane. Craven turned on his blue lights, and Satterwhite turned in to a Wal-Mart parking lot. Craven followed Satterwhite as he drove back onto a road and struck a mailbox and another car. Satterwhite then drove toward Edgefield in what an attorney for Satterwhite’s family would call a “low-speed chase.”

Satterwhite eventually pulled into the driveway of his home. An incident report said that “a struggle ensued between Officer Craven and the suspect over Officer Craven’s duty weapon. At that point, officer Craven discharged his duty weapon at the suspect an undetermined amount of times.”

After the Satterwhite shooting, an incident report by the Edgefield County Sheriff’s Office said that Craven approached the driver’s side door and “fired three or four shots into the vehicle and stated, ‘the suspect grabbed my gun.’ ” According to Carter Elliott Jr., the Satterwhites’ attorney, the video shows Craven lunging into the car with his gun drawn and then firing his weapon. “Why would you do that?” he told the newspaper last year. “The guy had stopped and was parked in his own driveway.”

Elliot viewed the video as part of his lawsuit against North Augusta and Edgefield. It showed Craven moving toward the driver’s side of Satterwhite’s car and lunging toward him, Elliott said. It appears that Satterwhite then raised his hands in surprise, not as if he was grabbing a weapon, the attorney said. Craven then pulls back and starts shooting, he said.

No weapon was found in Satterwhite’s car.

“There was no question about that,” Elliott told the newspaper.

The shooting was captured on Craven’s dashboard camera. But SLED, which investigated the shooting, and the North Augusta Department of Public Safety denied The Post and Courier’s request to release it.

Satterwhite’s family settled the lawsuit last year for $1.2 million. All told, South Carolina towns and cities halve paid more than $25 million to settle lawsuits from officer-involved shootings, according to the newspaper’s “Shots Fired” database.

A prosecutor wanted the North Augusta police officer charged with voluntary manslaughter, which carries up to 30 years in prison, but a grand jury refused to indict Craven. He later was charged with a felony — discharging a gun into an occupied vehicle. But Craven eventually pleaded guilty to the lesser misdemeanor misconduct in office charge, which carries up to a year behind bars.

Neal, the representative, said the Satterwhite case was inconsistent with what happened in the Scott shooting. “In one case, an officer is charged appropriately with murder. In another, a misdemeanor. I feel for the family.”

[Andrea]

EXCLUSIVE: NYPD kicks wrong family out of their home in nuisance case, seeking drug dealers who left 7 months earlier

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nypd-kicks-wrong-family-home-nuisance-case-article-1.2597105?utm_content=buffer4c4af&utm_medium=socia l&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=NYDailyNewsT w

The NYPD got an order kicking a family of four out of their Queens apartment by telling a judge it was a drug den — but the dealers had moved out seven months earlier.

A lawsuit to be filed in Brooklyn Federal Court on Tuesday details an egregious case of the NYPD’s use of the nuisance abatement law — a controversial tool in which cops are able to get a temporary order barring people from their homes without first giving them the opportunity to appear before a judge.

The bungled operation left Austria Bueno, 32, a housekeeper, crashing at a hotel and on a relative’s floor, beside her two sons and husband, for four nights, as they waited for their first court date.

“Everybody cried. Me, I was crying like a baby,” Bueno told the Daily News. “I don’t deserve that. My kids don’t deserve that either.”

Her lawsuit, which cites The News and ProPublica’s ongoing investigation into the NYPD’s misuse of the nuisance abatement law, seeks to have the legislation and its provision for secret lockout orders declared unconstitutional.

A News analysis found the number of cases filed by the NYPD has dropped substantially since the first investigation was published in February.

Bueno’s ordeal began before she even got to the Queensbridge Houses in Long Island City. Police say a confidential informant purchased crack at her future apartment twice in January 2015. A subsequent search turned up crack, weapons and $21,500.

Austria Bueno returned to her apartment only to find two neon-colored stickers taped to the door saying anyone who entered would be arrested.

Bueno and her family moved into the apartment in August.

On Dec. 11, a Friday, Bueno returned home after picking up her sons — ages 6 and 15 — from school to find a stack of legal papers and two neon-colored stickers taped to her door saying anyone who entered would be arrested.

She was told to come to court the following Tuesday.

That night, the Bueno family slept at a hotel for $208. The following three nights, the family slept on the living room floor of her mother-in-law.

Bueno said she missed three days of work, resulting in a reduced paycheck. Her husband also missed work, and her youngest son was unable to attend school one day because he couldn’t retrieve a clean school uniform.

The NYPD did not even bother to contact the New York City Housing Authority to determine if their targets still lived in the home they were asking a judge to close — despite filing the request 10 months after the search, claiming it “is currently being operated, occupied and used illegally,” Bueno’s suit says.

Bueno said she called 911 the night she was locked out, then went to the NYPD’s housing precinct stationhouse the following day, but was told both times she had to wait until her court date on Tuesday. She said she went to court a day early, but was told the same thing.

After her lawyer explained the situation at her first court date, Bueno was allowed back into her home. Rather than apologizing for the terrible mistake and dropping the case, the NYPD’s attorney dragged it on for three months in an effort to get Bueno to sign a settlement waiving her right to sue, the lawsuit says. She refused.

“When they have to do something like that, they’re supposed to know 100% that the person they’re still looking for is still living in the apartment,” Bueno said.

Her suit will also seek unspecified damages.

“We believe that this is an unlawful process,” Bueno’s attorney Robert Sanderman said. “Literally, people are being evicted and their life is being destroyed based on mere allegations that are hardly ever verified. It just flies in the face of the Constitution.”

City Public Advocate Letitia James — who wrote a letter to city Corporation Counsel Zachary Carter slamming nuisance abatements following The News’ coverage — was outraged by Bueno’s ordeal. “It is disgraceful that the city is displacing people from their homes without due process,” James said.

A police spokesman and the Law Department declined to comment.

In response to The News and ProPublica’s investigation, Carter said last month that his office would review its nuisance abatement procedures to ensure that secret lockout orders “would only be used in cases of appropriate urgency,” and would not apply to household members who haven't been accused of a crime.

Meanwhile, the number of nuisance abatement actions filed by the NYPD has dropped significantly since The News and ProPublica’s investigation.

The NYPD filed 28 nuisance abatement actions in state supreme courts between Feb. 4, when the investigation was first published, and April 11. The NYPD filed 161 cases during the same time period in 2013, and 101 during the same time period in 2014.

The department has filed just two nuisance abatement actions since March 25, when The News published a followup that quoted two former attorneys in the NYPD’s civil enforcement unit, which handles such cases, as saying the unit had no requirement or procedure to independently verify the claims it files in nuisance abatement actions, or to even check if anyone is still living in the house it is seeking to close.

However, judges have continued to grant temporary closing orders on businesses and homes, even in cases where the evidence is months old, despite state Deputy Chief Administrative Judge Fern Fisher’s advisory notice recommending that they limit the practice.

[*Anya*]

[Andrea]

13 prison officers fired for negligence, violating policies

http://www.12news.com/news/local/valley/13-prison-workers-fired-for-negligence-violating-policies/135307090

Thirteen correctional officers were fired and six others were disciplined in a move we’ve never seen before from the Arizona Department of Corrections.

It’s in response to an investigation into the suicide deaths of two inmates and violations of policies and ethics.

Video released by the DOC shows the moments a correctional officer at the Arizona State Prison Complex in Perryville found an inmate, Cynthia Apkaw, 25, hanging from her cell.

She had a rope around the air vent, attached to a bed sheet around her neck.

Could the correctional officers have saved her August of 2015? They tried with chest compressions and other life-saving measures, but she was pronounced dead after midnight.

According to an investigation released by the DOC, entries in a Correctional Service Journal were not accurate.

It shows checks were made every half-hour, but security footage contradicts that, showing a pill call at 4:41 p.m. that day. The officer is not seen coming back to the inmate's cell until 7:03 p.m. -- two hours and 22 minutes later.

Another incident occurred when officers attempted life-saving measures on Scott Saba, 45, back in February.

Officers found him with an electrical cord around his neck. The weight of his body blocked the cell door from opening. It took officers more than five minutes to pry it open.

The DOC’s investigators revealed two days prior, Saba tried to make 56 phone calls, and during one of them he's heard explaining part of the Bible.

A correctional officer observed Saba acting “paranoid,” and the inmate also asked to get out of his cell because he "wasn't feeling good."

That complaint went ignored; the correctional officer failed to notify the medical department about Saba’s comment.

The reports from this incident also show that correctional officers lied about the time they performed one of their security sweeps, and one turned in keys and a radio before clocking out.

Saba was in prison for a drug-related crime. He has small children and comes from a prominent family who owns Saba's Western Wear in Scottsdale.

Evaluation of his mental health score is mentioned twice in the report.

The Department of Corrections has not revealed what his scores were leading up to his death.

[Andrea]

Cook County sheriff releases excessive force videos

http://wgntv.com/2016/04/15/report-cook-county-sheriff-to-release-excessive-force-videos/

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart has decided to release videos documenting cases of excessive force against jail inmates.

“The public has a right to know when officers abuse the public trust as well as the ramifications of that abuse,” said Sheriff Dart.

The videos correspond to six individual cases, involving 14 officers. Five officers were fired, one resigned, and the other eight were suspended without pay ranging from 45 to 180 days, according to The Sun-Times.

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart says no prison has released video like this before. But he says the public has a right to transparency.

The Cook County Sheriff invested more than $10 million to install more than 2,400 cameras throughout the jail compound.

Cara Smith, of the Cook County Sheriff's Department says they're valuable in bringing transparency.

"Cameras are a great deterrent. They're also a great tool to exonerate staff when complaints made against them are false and to hold them accountable," Smith said.

The officers’ union is reportedly threatening to sue over the release of these videos.

[*Anya*]

First-graders cuffed, arrested, charged; Murfreesboro outraged

USA TODAY NETWORKJessica Bliss, The (Nashville) Tennessean
April 20th, 2016

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Police handcuffed multiple students, ages 6 to 11, at a public elementary school in Murfreesboro on Friday, inspiring public outcry and adding fuel to already heightened tensions between law enforcement and communities of color nationwide.

The arrests at Hobgood Elementary School occurred after the students were accused of not stopping a fight that happened several days earlier off campus. A juvenile center later released the students, but local community members now call for action — police review of the incident and community conversation — and social justice experts across the country use words such as "startling" and "flabbergasted" in response to actions in the case.

Parents and community members sharply criticized the arrests of the students at a church meeting Sunday. The Murfreesboro police chief on Sunday cited the incident as a learning experience, a chance to "make things better so they don't happen again." The city manager said Sunday: "If something needs to be corrected, it will be."

It remains unclear exactly how many children were arrested. State law prohibits the release of juvenile law enforcement records, and police have denied a media request for the information. Murfreesboro police didn't say what state law the kids violated, but parents of several of the arrested children say the kids were charged with "criminal responsibility for conduct of another," which according to Tennessee criminal offense code includes incidents when a "person fails to make a reasonable effort to prevent" an offense.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...m_content=link

[Andrea]

NYPD detectives charged with assaulting postal worker who accidently gave directions to cop killer

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/nypd-detectives-charged-assaulting-postal-worker-article-1.2608423?cid=bitly

Two NYPD detectives have been arrested for assaulting a postal worker who unwittingly gave an assassin directions to a Brooklyn housing project where the maniac killed two police officers, officials said Wednesday.

Queens District Attorney Richard Brown charged Detectives Angelo Pampena, 31,and Detective Robert A. Carbone, 29, with assault.

Pampena and Carbone are accused of dragging Karim Baker out of his car on Oct. 21, 2015, and punching and kicking him.

Baker was in his postal uniform at the time, officials said.

As the assault, which was first reported by the Daily News, was investigated, Pampena filed a false affidavit claiming that the fight broke out after Baker’s car was found parked in front of a hydrant — but surveillance video of the area shows he was parked legally, officials said.

The Queens DA’s office requested $10,000 bail, but the two detectives were ordered released without bail after a brief court appearance on Wednesday.

They will return to court to respond to the charges in June, according to a Queens DA spokeswoman.

Baker and his attorney claim that the Fed Ex worker turned postal employee has been repeatedly harassed by police after he unknowingly directed Ismaaiyl Brinsley to the Marcy Houses in Bedford-Stuyvesant just before Brinsley shot and killed Detectives Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu in December, 2014.

For months after the assassination, Baker said he has been stopped by police about 20 times — but never ticketed — for traffic infractions by vengeful cops before he was attacked by Pampena and Carbone.

“I have nothing in my heart against law enforcement at all,” Baker, the son of a former correction officer, told the News in November.

Pampena is a nine-year veteran of the NYPD. Carbone has been with the department for eight years.

Both have been suspended pending the outcome of the case.

[Andrea]

Sheriff Hailed Cops as Heroes, But Dashcam Shows them Listen to 3 Girls Scream as they Drowned

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/dash-cam-video-reveals-cops-lied-save-drowning-teens/#mlw7DHydWkiAW1Lf.99

Newly released dash cam footage reveals a Florida sheriff lied last month when he falsely claimed that his deputies took off their gun belts and attempted to save three drowning teenage girls. Instead of attempting to rescue the dying teens, the deputies can be seen on video standing beside the pond while listening to the girls’ final screams.

According to Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, a friend asked 35-year-old Damien Marriott to drive the three teenage girls to Child’s Park on Wednesday, March 30. For some reason, Marriott reportedly stopped at a Walmart to buy a TV when he left his keys in the ignition with the engine running along with three girls that he did not know sitting in his 1990 Honda Accord. Although Child’s Park closes at 8 p.m. on Wednesdays, Marriott did not return to his vehicle or report his car stolen until 8:30 p.m. that night.

Several hours later, deputies reported seeing the Honda run a red light without its headlights on during a pursuit. Entering the back of a cemetery, the girls accidentally drove the Honda into a pond as deputies exited their vehicles and remained standing on shore.

While the Honda submerged into the swamp, a recently released police dash cam video recorded a deputy exclaiming, “I hear them yelling, I think!”

As the video moves forward another deputy can be heard saying, “They’re done. They are 6-7, dude.”

“They were yelling,” a deputy responds. “I thought I heard yelling.”

“As it was going down,” the other deputy interjects. “But now, they’re done. They’re done.”

Although Sheriff Gualtieri announced at a press conference that his deputies flung off their gun belts and dove into the swamp in a failed attempt to save the teenage girls, police dash cam video actually shows the deputies standing near the shore listening to the girls scream to death.

Two hours later, a tow truck pulled out a vehicle containing the deceased bodies of 16-year-old Dominique Battle from St. Petersburg High School, 15-year-old Ashaunti Butler from Dixie Hollins High, and 15-year-old Laniya Miller from Gibbs High.

“My daughter was not perfect,” Miller’s mother, Natasha Winkler, recently told ABC Action News through tears. “What 15-year-old is?”

Despite the fact that the sheriff initially released false information and his deputies likely provided false reports claiming they tore off their gun belts and dove into the murky water to save the dying teen girls, no criminal charges have been filed against any of the deceitful deputies. Caught on police dash cam video, the deputies clearly falsified their reports after standing around while callously listening to the drowning girls die.

[Andrea]

Cape cop suspended after March excessive force incident

http://www.abc-7.com/story/31795731/cape-cop-suspended-after-march-excessive-force-incident

A Cape Coral police officer received an 80-hours unpaid suspension after using force on a drunk person in a parking lot last month in a viral video.

It happened across the street from Dixie Roadhouse in a parking lot on March 13.

Brittnie Fails admitted to being drunk and had no problem being arrested for it. But she did have a problem with what she says was excessive force used to detain her.

The video shows the officer grabbing Fails and throwing her to the ground after she was arguing with her boyfriend.

Since the video's release, the officer was placed on administrative duty.

The incident was recorded on a bystander's smartphone and the video that was posted online went viral.

There were no criminal charges against the officer as reviewed by the state attorney.

The Professional Standards Bureau's internal affairs investigation found that the subject officer in violation of department policy for conduct unbecoming, improper use of force, and failure provide medical aid in a use of force incident.

The suspension will begin Monday, April 25.

[Andrea]

My version of the correct headline: 13 year old child with a toy gun was shot running away from two plain clothes police in an unmarked car

Baltimore police investigate officer's shooting of teen who had replica gun

http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/28/us/baltimore-13-year-old-shot/index.html

A Baltimore police officer shot and wounded a 13-year-old boy who was carrying a replica handgun.

The teen, who police say is expected to recover, was shot at the end of a foot chase Wednesday after officers spotted him walking down the street. They pursued the boy thinking he had a real gun, Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis told reporters.

It turned out to be a pellet gun, Davis said.

But he said, "It's a dead-on ringer for a Beretta 92FS semiautomatic pistol."
The officers who chased the teenager -- detectives assigned to the department's intelligence unit -- identified themselves before shooting him, Davis said.

He said he did not know why the teenager had the pellet gun or why he ran. He said officers had interviewed the teen's mother and that she knew he had left the house with it.

He defended the officers' actions, saying officers couldn't have known the gun was a replica, but even then, replica guns have been used in crimes before. Officers, he said, had no idea what the teen's intentions were.
"We can't allow someone to walk down the street in broad daylight anywhere in Baltimore with what looks like to be a semiautomatic pistol in his hand," Davis told reporters.

The shooting came on the first anniversary of violent protests over the death of Freddie Gray while in Baltimore police custody.

It also occurred two days after the city of Cleveland agreed to pay $6 million to the family of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who died in 2014 after police shot him while he was in possession of a replica handgun.

While police spokesman Detective Donny Moses said Baltimore was quiet overnight and into Thursday, reaction was mixed on social media.

"We have more questions than answers today," Baltimore civil rights activist DeRay Mckesson said on Twitter. "Why did the Baltimore officers approach the 13 year old child? Why did they shoot him?"

One Twitter user told Baltimore police, "Awesome job! I hope you arrest his mother for negligence or contributing to delinquency. She's unfit."

But on Facebook, Darren Willis said in a reply to the police update on the incident that "cop kissing jerks" praising the department had missed the point.

"How was he to even know they were cops? He was 13 and ran away from grown-assed men who were strangers and armed. Details matter. I know, blame the target and the mom. It's easy for racists and idiots."

[Andrea]

Florida officer fired for hitting handcuffed woman, authorities say

http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/29/us/jacksonville-rookie-officer-fired/index.html

A Florida police officer has been charged with battery and fired for repeatedly striking a handcuffed woman in custody, authorities said.
Officer Akinyemi Borisade, 26, has worked with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office for a year, Undersheriff Pat Ivey said.

The incident started Wednesday after Borisade arrested a woman at a local bar for trespassing and resisting arrest.

Police responded to the scene after the woman, a new employee at the bar, got into an argument with her employer and was asked to leave.

When police arrived to escort her out of the property, she became belligerent, authorities said.

She refused to be handcuffed and tried to kick and bite the officers, CNN affiliate WJXT reported. It said while she was in the patrol car, she continued kicking and had to be restrained.

Officers transported her to Duval County Jail.

Multiple strikes

In a video released by the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, she's seen kicking Borisade, who was one of the arresting officers. He responds with multiple strikes to her midsection.

Corrections officers who saw the incident talked to their supervisors about it, according to the affiliate.

"There are ways this could have been dealt with without striking her," Ivey said at a news conference. "There was no need to strike her."

The woman has been released and has no pending court date, authorities said.

Battery charges

Borisade was charged with battery and terminated by the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office on Thursday. Since he's been on the job since March last year, he is within the 18-month probationary period mandated by his employer.

As a probationary officer, he cannot appeal his firing and will not be afforded civil service protections following his termination, according to Ivey.

CNN's attempts to reach an attorney for him have been unsuccessful.