ATLANTA (AP) - An Atlanta police officer was placed on administrative duty after activists say video shows him body-slamming a woman amid protests over police brutality.
Amber Jackson, 24, said the officer yanked her out of a car and threw her down, breaking her shoulder and fracturing her clavicle, news outlets reported.
Bystander and police body camera videos show the officer removing Jackson from a car she says was driven by her fiance, who is a grandson of civil rights activist Hosea Williams. The two had attended a protest and were leaving the area in the early morning hours of May 30, according to news outlets.
Jackson said she moved a barrier near Lenox Square so she and her fiance could get home. She says an officer then pulled her from the car and placed her in handcuffs. She was not arrested, but cited for disorderly conduct, according to her attorney Mawuli Davis.
Atlanta police said in a statement to news outlets that the incident occurred amid widespread looting and property damage during the first night of protests.
“The woman refused the officer’s orders to exit the vehicle,” police spokesman Carlos Campos said in the statement. “He attempted to get her out of the car and the two struggled. During her effort to resist the arrest, the officer had to force her to the ground to get her in handcuffs.”
The officer was not identified in the statement. Campos said the department’s Office of Professional Standards was investigating.
The incident happened a day before a different couple was pulled out of a vehicle and hit with stun guns during a large protest in Atlanta. Two officers in that case were fired, and both were among six officers charged.
Activists and Jackson’s attorney have called for the officer who detained Jackson to be fired and for Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields to resign.
“If Chief Shields can’t hold her officers accountable, then she needs to be held accountable,” Davis said.
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