Police video shows officers joking about violent arrest of Colorado woman, 73
New footage has been released that shows the disturbing aftermath of the violent arrest of a 73-year-old woman, believed to suffer from dementia, after she left a Walmart store in Colorado last June.
In police station surveillance video released on Monday by an attorney for Karen Garner’s family, three Loveland police officers can be seen reviewing body-cam film of the arrest – footage which was released two weeks ago.
Austin Hopp, the arresting officer who bent Garner’s arm behind her back as she bent over a patrol car, can be heard to tell fellow officers: “Ready for the pop?”
Two officers are seen to exchange a fist bump. As another joins them, they are heard to say the arrest “went great”. Earlier in the video, Hopp says Garner was “flexible”.
“We crushed it,” one of the officers says, in the nearly hour-long footage.
Near the end of the footage, Hopp says Garner is the first person on whom he has used a hobble restraint.
“I was super excited,” he says. “I was like, ‘All right, let’s wrestle, girl. Let’s wreck it!’ I got her on the ground and all that stuff. I got her cuffed up … threw her on the ground a couple of times.”
He adds: “I can’t believe I threw a 73year-old on the ground.”
Speaking to the Washington Post, Sarah Schielke, the attorney representing Garner’s family, described the film as “heart-wrenching” and “unseeable” and said it took six hours before Garner, who was handcuffed to a bench in a holding cell, was seen by a doctor.
According to a family lawsuit, police were called after Garner left the Walmart store without paying for items worth $13.88 and allegedly attempted to pull off an employee’s mask. The slight and frail woman, whom family members say suffers from dementia and sensory aphasia, was arrested as she was picking wildflowers.
In the arrest film, Garner can be heard telling officers she is “going home”, as she walks along a grass verge by a highway. Officers respond by throwing her to the ground, allegedly fracturing her arm and dislocating a shoulder.
After the arrest film was released, Garner’s family filed a federal lawsuit against the city and three officers. The complaint has been amended to include two more officers, for allegedly failing to intervene or provide medical care.
Colorado’s eighth judicial district attorney, Gordon McLaughlin, said there would be an investigation into “any potential criminal behavior”.
“The statements on the videos are very concerning,” he said. “I will consider those statements along with all relevant evidence … in making a charging decision.”
Last week, a police spokesman said four officers had been suspended. Loveland police declined to comment on the new video footage, citing the investigation.
“LPD has faith in the due process that this investigation allows for,” it said.
The Loveland Fraternal Order of
Police, the union representing city officers, did not immediately comment.
Schielke said of the new footage: “If I didn’t release this, the Loveland police’s toxic culture of arrogance and entitlement, along with their horrific abuse of the vulnerable and powerless, would carry on, business as usual. I won’t be a part of that.”