Updated at 10:30 a.m. EST 11/16/2023
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New details have emerged about the woman who was beaten by members of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department in a now-viral video.
The woman was identified as Christina Pierre and the man she was with moments before the arrest is her fiancé, according to WBTV. The two were waiting for the bus when they were approached by the police Monday afternoon.
As seen in the viral video, Pierre was wrestled to the ground and struck several times. As of now, the department only addressed Pierre being punched in the thigh as a strategy to “gain compliance,” but didn’t say much about how she ended up with a massive, purple bruise on her face.
“What we know from a witness, a witness that was there on scene, a white woman who’s seen in the video, is that the first officer cold cocked Miss Pierre,” attorney Lauren Newton told a WBTV reporter.
In a press conference, CMPD Chief Johnny Jennings didn’t have much to add to the observation. He said after reviewing the body cam footage, there’s nothing that shows her being struck in the face or head area while on the ground.
Jennings said he suspects the abrasion may have been the result of the struggle that happened between Pierre and the first responding officer before backup arrived.
“To everyone and to our community, I get it. I understand the outrage, I understand the emotions that come when you look at a video that involves an officer who is punching a female who we’re trying to make the arrest and subdue. I understand that,” said Jennings.
The CMPD is in the hot seat after the circulation of a video showing its officers punching a Black woman while trying to arrest her.
The department said in a statement that Pierre and her fiancé were approached by the CMPD for allegedly smoking weed in public. They claim the woman threw a punch at one of the officers and that the male suspect had a firearm. Things escalated when they refused arrest, claim the department.
The man was eventually arrested and police confiscated a 9 mm handgun. However, the woman was tackled to the ground by at least five officers. The department said she was laying on her hands, preventing the officers from placing her in handcuffs.
In response (and supposedly, per their training), one officer struck the woman in the right thigh with his knee seven times and with his fist 10 times while ordering her to stop resisting.
The department said that, though the scene was difficult to watch, the officer’s actions were “intentional.”
“I had the opportunity to view this video and it is not easy to watch,” said Chief Johnny Jennings in a statement.
He ain’t wrong about that. Watch the clip below:
A small crowd of bystanders surrounded the scene, some stopping their cars to record. In the video, the officers ordered them to back up as they drew closer, yelling at them to stop hitting the woman.
“They’re going to kill her right on the ground,” one person is heard saying.
“You don’t put your hands on a woman like that bruh!” another bystander yelled.
The video shows the woman in handcuffs being lifted off the ground and escorted into a patrol car. Corine Mack, the president of Charlotte Mecklenburg NAACP, told WCNC he saw marks on her face as if she was struck in the face.
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