Caught on camera: Trooper filmed ‘brutally beating woman on side of California highway’ but authorities say it was for her own ‘protection’
A California trooper has been filmed brutally beating a woman on the side of a highway – but authorities claimed he simply stopped her for her own safety.
A passing motorist recorded the unidentified California Highway Patrol officer as he punched the woman at least 11 times in the head along the 10 Freeway in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
On the video uploaded to YouTube, the woman can be seen trying to protect herself by putting up her hands but she does not appear to resist the trooper.
‘The most animalistic, most brutal way to subdue someone is to pound someone’s head into the concrete with really big blows to the head,’ witness David Diaz told ABC7.
‘There was no weapons – it’s obviously excess force,’ he continued. ‘He starts really letting loose… He starts pounding down on her face really hard. He doesn’t try to grab her hands first.’
The video captured on Diaz’s cell phone shows him slowing down for a traffic stop as a woman can be seen heading towards the median on the freeway.
The officer approaches her before he forces her to the ground and pins her down, repeatedly hitting her while Diaz and his fellow car passengers gasp in horror.
Eventually another man – later identified by the CHP as a plain clothes officer – approaches the trooper and helps handcuff the woman.
Speaking to ABC7, the CHP said the officer had ordered the woman to stop walking but she ignored him and fearing she would be hurt, the officer tried placing her under arrest.
‘A physical altercation ensued as the pedestrian continued to resist arrest, at which point a plain clothes, off duty officer assisted in applying the handcuffs,’ the CHP said in the statement.
The CHP added that the woman refused to give her name and she was booked as ‘Jane Doe’ and taken to a local hospital for mental and physical evaluation.
But Diaz said he was not convinced the use of force was appropriate.
‘He just pounded her,’ he told CBSLA. ‘If you look at the video, there are 15 hits. To the head, and not just simple jabs. These are blows to the head. Blows. Really serious blows. And this is ridiculous to me.’
He added: ‘I find it hard to believe there [was] no other remedy in this situation.’
Harold
ACGR's "News with Attitude" 