Video of Vallejo police officer punching woman in the face during arrest has gone viral on TikTok
A Vallejo police officer punched a woman in the face last week during an arrest that was caught on video by a bystander and has since gone viral.
The video, which was posted on TikTok over the weekend and has been viewed more than 784,000 times, shows an officer opening a car door on the driver’s side, grabbing a woman inside by the arms, slamming her into the side of a truck and pulling her to the ground. Then he punches her in the face.
“You punched me in my face,” the woman can be heard screaming multiple times.
The arrest occurred Friday, after a loss prevention officer waved down a Vallejo patrol car at a parking lot in the 1100 block of Admiral Callaghan Lane, according to a police department news release. The loss prevention officer gave a description of a blue Nissan Altima, whose driver and passenger had apparently stolen more than $1,000 worth of merchandise from a business.
The incident comes amid increased coverage of retail “smash-and-grab” robberies throughout the state. Recently, a group of thieves burglarized an Yves Saint Laurent store in Glendale.
Capt. John Whitney alleged in a lawsuit he was fired for whistleblowing on the practice of “badge bending” among Vallejo police officers. The city agreed to a settlement.
According to the police department, the officer tried to stop the Nissan but the driver refused to stop, leading to a chase in which the driver ran a red light and crashed into two cars. The first was an SUV with a mother and her two 4-year-old sons; the second was a cement truck. The children were uninjured but the truck’s occupants suffered moderate injuries, according to police.
The officer tried to arrest both people inside the Nissan but the passenger fled; he then opened the driver’s-side door and grabbed the driver’s wrist. The woman tried to flee, so the officer attempted to pin her against the truck but she continued to resist, according to police officials.
“The officer conducted a control hold take down to prevent her from running,” the department said in the release. “Once the suspect was on the ground, she continued to actively resist, pivoting her body and gauging the officer’s arm in an attempt to escape, prompting him to strike her once to gain immediate compliance.”
The officer can be seen in the video putting the woman in handcuffs, lifting her up by her arms and leading her away.
The initiative entails deploying “blitz enforcement operations” that will involve teams of officers patrolling popular city shopping areas.
Police said that two other people got out of their cars and helped the officer detain the passenger who had tried to escape, and held her down until officers arrested her.
Officers found about $2,000 worth of stolen merchandise in the Nissan; the business also said the suspects stole about $1,000 worth of merchandise on Sept. 26, according to the release.
The driver was on felony probation for grand theft and shoplifting and had last been arrested Oct. 4 in the theft of about $30,000 worth of merchandise from another store, according to the release. The passenger of the car had a $10,000 warrant for her arrest in San Mateo for burglary and a $50,000 warrant for grand theft in Napa.
Both women were checked out at a hospital before being booked into county jail. The merchandise was returned to the business.
The video follows a previous controversy involving the Vallejo Police Department. Last month, a former police captain reached a $1-million settlement with the city after he sued the police department, alleging that he was fired for whistleblowing on his colleagues and exposing corruption, including “badge bending” in the department.
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