Video shows police officer slamming woman who had hands up
Newly released dash cam video shows a US police officer slamming an unarmed robbery suspect to the ground after she got out of a car with her hands up.
Tiffani Jacobs, 34, was driving a getaway car after her boyfriend robbed a McDonald's at gunpoint. During a chase, she sped toward an officer who was on foot. That officer opened fire, hitting her twice in the chest. She continued to flee until other officers caught up with the car.
The video shows Jacobs getting out of her car with her hands up. An officer approaches with his gun drawn and, using his free hand, grips her by the collar and slams her to the ground on her stomach.
“After taking Jacobs to the ground, and believing Jacobs may have been armed, officers ordered her to show her hands,” a police report says.
“Jacobs refused to comply with verbal direction from the arresting officers to show her hands. At that time officers stepped back and deployed Tasers to obtain control of Jacobs.
Jacobs’ hands were subsequently secured and she was taken into custody. Officers determined she had been shot, placed [her] in an unmarked vehicle, and immediately called for an ambulance.”
Officers then shocked her several times with stun guns because, they said, she ignored their commands to show her hands, which were pinned under her body. Jacobs told investigators the officers also used a Taser on her after she was handcuffed.
She was hospitalised and treated for two gunshot wounds to the chest.
Jacobs was convicted of armed robbery and is serving a 12-year prison sentence.
The investigation by the Independent Police Review Authority found the officer who opened fire was justified in doing so because his life was in danger.
However, two of the officers involved in the woman's 2011 arrest have now been stripped of their police powers pending a new review.
The officers taken off duty during a new review were the one who slammed her to the ground and one of the officers who discharged his Taser.
Jones’ mother, Sandra Jacobs-Jones, told The Chicago Sun Times that she had been waiting for years for ‘the truth’ to come out.
“Thank you, Jesus!” she initially said at the news police officers would be investigated over the incident.
“When they arrested her, the police would not give me any information. I did not even know my daughter had been shot.
“They beat her face in the ground…she lost her teeth. I really felt like she was mistreated.”
The video was released by the Chicago Police Department, whose new chief is trying to increase openness and rebuild trust after several cases of excessive force, particularly against African-Americans.
The city's Police Department has been under intense scrutiny over excessive force cases and is under investigation by the US Justice Department.
The department has promised to implement some reforms recommended by a task force set up by Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The new police chief appointed to help turn the department around, Superintendent Eddie Johnson, has begun reviewing past use-of-force investigations, including the one involving the 2011 arrest caught on a patrol car dashboard camera.
"After reviewing video footage from the investigation, the superintendent found that the officers' actions in apprehending one of the offenders — who is now serving time in jail — concerning," said a police statement accompanying the release of the video and police reports.
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