PONTIAC, Mich. – A Pontiac family is considering legal action against the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office after a rough arrest was caught on camera.
The video shows officers repeatedly punching a 48-year-old woman in front of her home as officers tried to arrest her during what appeared to be a mental health crisis.
“Kneed, kicked, she’s bruised up from her chest on up, face, her eye is bulging,” the woman’s daughter Jazzaray Stephens said. “They’re here to protect the citizens and wrong is wrong and there’s no justifying wrong. If she was wrong you could have detained her in the proper manner.”
Stephens said her mother has significant mental health issues. Police said the original call came in for a welfare check and when they arrived they found the woman trying to light a cloth on fire.
Police said she exposed herself to officers and then swung at them so they tackled her to the ground and punched her repeatedly.
“She resisted the arrest and we did what we had to do to try and get her under control,” Oakland County Undersheriff Curtis Childs said. “The deputies were being bitten multiple times.”
A co-responder was on the scene but police said the woman refused to speak with her or anyone else so she was arrested.
The woman has not been charged with anything and is being held in jail.
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