WATCH: Fort Worth officer slams woman critical of police to ground in forcible arrest
Fort Worth police on Wednesday released surveillance and body-worn camera video that shows an officer slam a 60-year-old woman to the ground while arresting her early Sunday in the West 7th district.
The footage released by police begins with Carolyn Rodriguez standing next to a parked police vehicle and walking toward two female officers as she is recording video on her phone. Police said they were responding to a hit-and-run at around 3:30 a.m. that day near the 1000 block of Foch Street, involving a suspected intoxicated driver who crashed into a vehicle and building before fleeing on foot.
A third, male officer is seen getting out of another patrol vehicle and telling Rodriguez multiple times to move across the street, police said in a news release.
“There’s no investigation. There’s no nothing,” Rodriguez is heard saying in the video.
“You can go to the other side of the street or you’re going to get arrested. I’m not warning you again,” the male officer said.
Rodriguez asked the officer why she needed to move across the street and asked, “What are you talking about?”
One of the female officers says, “We’re doing an investigation,” and the male officer tells Rodriguez she is under arrest.
According to police, Rodriguez failed to comply, and the video shows the officer grabbing her and throwing her face down on the ground, placing her under arrest.
As she is being handcuffed on the ground, the officer tells her to stop resisting. Another officer is heard saying Rodriguez is bleeding.
Before the incident, Rodriguez — who posts critiques and interactions with police on YouTube — was questioning the validity of a tow truck that was at a parking lot near officers. She also posted a YouTube live video of the incident filmed from her perspective.
As a result of the forcible arrest, Rodriguez was taken to a hospital for evaluation and treatment. Following her release from the hospital, she was booked into the jail on suspicion of interference with public duties, resisting arrest and/or detention, evading arrest, and false alarm or report.
She suffered a disjoined shoulder and elbow, laceration above the eye, lacerations of the upper lip, head trauma, nose trauma, concussion and loss of consciousness, according to CJ Grisham, an attorney who represents her. Rodriguez also likely suffered a skull fracture, according to Grisham.
A booking photo uploaded by the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office showed Rodriguez with a black eye and cuts on other parts of her face. She was released Monday from the jail on a bond, according to jail records.
Grisham told the Star-Telegram that Rodriguez did not represent a threat to the officer who used force “to justify being body-slammed head first onto the concrete.”
“It was impossible for Ms. Rodriguez to avoid arrest because [the officer] did not give her time to respond to his assault. Ms. Rodriguez was doing nothing illegal and should not have been arrested under any circumstances, much less violently assaulted,” Grisham said.
The use-of-force incident is being investigated by the Fort Worth Police Department Major Case and Internal Affairs Units to determine compliance with policies and procedures, police said in a news release Wednesday.
The officer, who has been with the police department for seven years, was reassigned out of patrol pending the investigation, the department said.
