SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — A widely-shared video captures a Southern California police officer forcefully taking down a 17-year-old student who was partially handcuffed, causing her to hit the ground face-first.
The teenager at the center of the incident, Erin, spoke out with family and community by her side at a press conference on Sunday.
“I’m just in a lot of pain. I’m hurt everywhere — my head, my whole body. I’m not the same person I was,” Erin said at the press conference.
“I’ll be taking her to the hospital again today. She’s still complaining about her face hurting, her head hurting, her wrist hurting, her legs hurt, her back hurt. Let’s just get justice for my baby,” said Erin’s mother, Tanya Brownridge.
On May 21, around 2 p.m., San Bernardino police responded to a grocery store in the 500 block of West 2nd Street for a call about someone trespassing and attempting to fight. When officers arrived, they took the 17-year-old into custody.
Video shows an officer holding the teenager before body-slamming her to the ground.
“I’m not OK because that grown man knocked my baby out cold,” said Erin’s grandmother, Rhonda Taylor. “You could see the blood by the police car where it busted her chin open. It’s not OK. She’s a baby. She’s a baby. It’s not OK.”
Erin and her family say she and her friends were doing nothing wrong when another group of teenagers attacked them in the store, unprovoked. They say police targeted Erin, treating her as if she had done something wrong.
Erin says she was body-slammed face-first. She has a cut on her chin and a large scrape along the side of her face.
“At the time of the physical encounter, the officer was attempting to place the female in handcuffs. The officer was only able to place one of her hands in cuffs when she began actively pulling away and attempting to walk off from the officer when a takedown maneuver was used,” the San Bernardino Police Department said in a statement posted on social media.
“The San Bernardino Police Department is committed to impartial and accountable policing. Use of force is applied based on behavior, not on age, gender, or race,” the statement continued.
Erin’s family is demanding justice and is requesting that Attorney General Rob Bonta launch an independent investigation into the incident.
“I just want justice for my baby. She didn’t do anything. The fact that I had to drive two hours — they let her bleed out for three in the hospital before they stitched her up,” Brownridge said. “They gave us three different stories — one to me, one to my mom, and one to my sister. I just want justice, that’s it.”
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