CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Questions have been raised after a video showing a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officer repeatedly punching a woman in south Charlotte Monday surfaced.
The video, posted and shared on Instagram, shows at least four CMPD officers Monday restraining a woman on the ground while a fifth officer can be seen punching the woman multiple times. In the video, another officer can be seen escorting a man away from the woman.
The incident happened Monday just after 2 p.m. near the intersection of South Tryon Street and West Arrowood Road in south Charlotte.
In the video, a small crowd can be seen yelling toward officers, who eventually grab the woman by each of her arms and escort her toward a patrol car.
"It was triggering it reminded me of George Floyd and immediately I began to weep," said Corine Mack, the president of Charlotte Mecklenburg NAACP.
The video can be seen on Instagram. Due to the nature of the video, WCNC Charlotte advises discretion in the viewing of the video.
WCNC Charlotte has reviewed another video, recorded from a second angle, which shows the woman being searched before being placed inside the patrol car. At least seven officers are standing nearby as the woman is placed inside the CMPD vehicle.
"I had the opportunity to view this video, and it is not easy to watch," CMPD Police Chief Johnny Jennings said in a prewritten statement Tuesday. "I never want to see an officer, much less one of my own, involved in a situation like this."
WCNC Charlotte is working to understand what happened before the video recordings began. Our reporters visited the location Tuesday looking for witnesses and searching for any other videos of the event.
In response to questions raised Tuesday, CMPD released a statement claiming the man and woman seen in the video were found smoking marijuana in public.
"When officers approached the individuals, the female subject punched an officer in the face," the department claims. "The male subject on the scene had a firearm. Both individuals refused arrest, and a struggle with officers ensued."
The department's statement describes the woman as "laying on her hands and not allowing officers to arrest her," they write. "A male subject was arrested. He was in possession of a 9 mm handgun."
The department did address the officer's use of force when he decided to repeatedly punch the woman.
"One officer threw multiple strikes to the female subject's right thigh and 'stop resisting' was stated several times," CMPD says.
In the videos reviewed by WCNC Charlotte, most of the dialogue between officers and the woman cannot be heard because of the distance between the person taking the video and the sound of the crowd around the scene. An officer can be heard telling the crowd to back up.
"After several repeated verbal commands, an officer struck the female subject seven times with knee strikes and 10 closed first strikes to the peroneal nerve in the thigh to try and gain compliance," CMPD explains in its statement. "The officer was intentional about where the strikes were made."
CMPD posted their full statement on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter.
CMPD said their officers are trained to strike large muscle groups in order to gain compliance during an arrest. The department's internal affairs division is reviewing the officer's actions.
"There are marks on her face and I want to know how those marks got there, who struck her and how many times was she struck," said Mack.
At the time of this publication, CMPD has not yet made a representative available to answer questions from WCNC Charlotte's reporters.
In North Carolina, a police officer's body camera video cannot be released without the authorization of a judge. Jennings said he has asked the police department's attorney to file a petition with the court to release the video publicly.
"I watched the body worn camera footage and believe that it tells more of the story than what is circulating on social media," Jennings wrote in his statement on X. "The public deserves to view this footage as well."
In his statement, Jennings asks for patience from the public while the petition is reviewed by the court.
In an effort to learn as much as possible Tuesday, WCNC Charlotte has also reviewed audio recordings captured by websites that use radio receivers to record publicly available transmissions from a police department's radio communications. Those scanner recordings offered only a few captured transmissions from the scene Monday.
Just after 2 p.m., an officer can be heard informing dispatch he's investigating a possible trespassing, according to the audio recordings. Within the span of 10 minutes, officers can be heard repeatedly asking for additional officers to help with crowd control, and officers appear to get both people arrested. At 2:13 p.m., an officer can be heard asking a dispatch to send a Medic unit to evaluate one of the two people apprehended.
The officer suffered minor injuries equivalent to bruises and scratches, according to a police report document obtained by WCNC Charlotte. Information was not available about the extent of any injuries to the man or woman.
The identities of those arrested have not been formally released by CMPD, but Bojangles confirmed both people involved are employees and remain employed at this time. The two had recently clocked out from shifts at the nearby Bojangles and left the property.
“Like many other Charlotteans, we were shocked and saddened by the video of an incident between Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police and a Bojangles employee," a statement from Bojangles reads, in part. "While we wait to learn more of the details of what led to the incident, we plan to cooperate fully with any investigation.
CMPD confirmed the woman has been charged with assault on a police officer, resisting arrest and possession of marijuana. The man has been charged with carrying a concealed weapon, resisting arrest and possession of marijuana.
