WASHTENAW COUNTY, Mich. – Jaquisy Diggins had a hard time holding back tears as he relived the incident caught on cell phone video showing a Washtenaw County sheriff’s deputy striking her mother multiple times while trying to make an arrest.
“The officer punched my mom in the face three times for no reason and she is a female. She was helpless, she wasn’t doing anything,” Diggins said.
The footage was captured by Tovah Taylor on the night of Memorial Day. The incident happened on Apple Ridge Street.
“It was getting crazy. It just seemed like it was more police than what was necessary. Her husband seen it and turned around then taxed him. It was crazy,” Taylor said.
Both of Jaquisy’s parents, Shatina and Daniel El, were arrested.
“It started all over an argument, altercation, over something crazy. Some females got into it. A girl lost and somebody got to shooting,” Diggins said.
Diggins, and her sister Charity, said their parents are Moorish Americans.
“We aren’t U.S. citizens. We’re free Moorish Americans, and we go by our own law,” Charity El said.
When their mother stood her ground and refused to stop recording, that’s when the incident began.
“The police came harassing me and my mother and we weren’t doing nothing but reciting and saying our rights,” Diggins said.
Nevertheless, the question remains did this really need to happen?
“Nobody can believe this stuff actually happens and it happens in your own neighborhood. These police are going too far,” Taylor said.
Several staff members at the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office have been placed on administrative leave while an investigation is underway.
Here is a step by step process of what’s to come, according to the department:
- An internal Subject Control/Use of Force review has begun (this is normal procedure)
- Some staff involved in the incident have been placed on administrative leave pending the investigative results (this is normal procedure as well)
- Following a preliminary gathering of facts, an external agency will be asked to conduct the internal investigation
- All relevant body-worn camera and dash camera video and audio has been collected
- Officials have begun the process of conducting initial interviews for both the original shooting incident and the force used in the arrests
- Officials will provide ongoing updates to the community