Police outside Atlanta are investigating after a bystander’s video shows an officer beating a homeless woman inside a convenience store.
DeKalb County Police reopened their use of force investigation after local media broadcast video shows the officer striking 38-year-old Katie McCrary at least 10 times. At one point, she grabs his baton as the officer presses her to the floor with his knee in her back, and he repeatedly shouts “let it go or I’m a shoot you.”
DeKalb County is reopening a case after video surfaces showing a police officer beating a homeless woman in Atlanta. pic.twitter.com/8reEUvADO0
— Everything Georgia (@GAFollowers) July 11, 2017
The video doesn’t show the events leading up to the incident.
The police officer involved, who hasn’t been named, said McCrary “attempted to push [him] out of the way and walk out of the door” when he was questioning her about begging customers for money at the store in Decatur, Ga., according to the report filed on July 5, CNN reports.
In the incident report, he said after being warned not to touch him, McCrary reached for his badge. He says he hit her legs and arms, before “one strike inadvertently struck the side of her head as she was moving around.”
Police said McCrary was taken to a hospital after her June 4 arrest. She’s charged with obstructing law enforcement and was served a criminal trespass warning.
Dekalb County police spokeswoman Shiera Campbell told HuffPost that the investigation was renewed after the video appeared on social media.
“It’s more we’re looking at the video to see if it aligns with the officer’s statement. Right now, what he put in his report is consistent with the video,” she said.
