The family of a woman allegedly thrown to the ground and punched repeatedly by a California Highway Patrol officer is asking that the two officers involved in the incident be punished, the woman’s lawyer said Saturday.
“She’s not just some animal,” said Los Angeles attorney Caree Harper, who declined to name the woman. “She has an aunt, a sister, a brother, a father and a great-grandchild.”
CHP officials launched an investigation Friday after video of the altercation was broadcast on television news outlets.
The video, shot by a passing driver, shows the woman walking on the shoulder of Interstate 10 west of downtown Los Angeles when a CHP officer on foot catches up with her, spins her around and throws her to the ground. The video shows the woman struggling and trying to sit up, and as the officer struggles to subdue her, he can be seen punching the woman at least eight times in the head while she is pinned on her back by his weight.
A plainclothes CHP officer appears and helps the other officer pin her to the ground at the end of the video.
Passing Driver David Diaz recorded the Tuesday incident and provided it to media outlets. He said that he arrived as the woman was walking off the freeway. He said she turned around only after the officer shouted something to her.
“He agitated the situation more than helped it,” Diaz said.
Harper said the woman’s family wants authorities held accountable for “beating a great-grandmother in broad daylight.”
The extent of the woman’s injuries was unclear, but CHP officials told media at a Friday news conference that she was not injured and that she was undergoing a mental health evaluation. The woman’s name is not being released, officials said.
The woman is being housed at a mental health facility at Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in South Los Angeles and doctors are not allowing the family to see her, Harper said.
“There is no justification for the way that he savagely beat her,” Harper said. “He’s the one that should be in a mental health facility.”
CHP officials said the video captured only a small part of the incident. The officer was trying to stop the woman from walking into traffic and endangering herself and others, CHP officials said. The woman had begun walking off the freeway but returned and that’s when the confrontation occurred.
Police would not identify the officer, who is now on administrative leave while the patrol investigates. CHP Assistant Chief Chris O’Quinn said the department would answer community concerns and that an investigative team already has been assembled and has begun its work.
“We will leave no stone unturned,” he said.
The woman’s relatives have not contemplated a lawsuit yet because they haven’t been able to determine her condition, Harper said. She declined to say why the woman was walking on the freeway, saying that nothing could justify the officer’s tactics.
“We are not going to let this woman be on trial,” said Harper. “We’re going to turn the attention on the wannabe MMA (mixed martial arts) cop who repeatedly punched her as she was lying on her back.”
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The video caught the attention of local civil rights leaders, who expressed shock and outrage at their own news conference.
“Speaking for the women of this community, we are angry, we are upset,” said Lita Herron of the Youth Advocacy Coalition.
O’Quinn said the CHP would answer community concerns.
“We are known as an agency that really polices itself,” O’Quinn said.
Community activist Earl Ofari Hutchinson, speaking at the local leaders’ news conference, agreed.
“Over the years, CHP has had a very good track record in terms of community relations,” Hutchinson said. “That’s why this was so shocking.”
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