Horrific footage shows a police officer laughing before Tasering and arresting a 70-year-old bipolar woman who was having a manic episode.
LaDonna June Paris, 70, went to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on October 25 last year.
Employees said they called the police when the great grandma, who was struggling with a bad period of mental health issues at the time, left her dog in her truck and locked herself in the customer bathroom for four hours.
When the officers arrived at the store they noticed Ms Paris had been using an ‘aerosol can and had a lighter’, according to a police statement.
Body camera footage showed what happened next.
Ronni Carrocia turned her Taser on so Ms Paris could hear it and then asked her: ‘Do you wanna get Tased?’
Ms Paris replied from the other side of the door: ‘Don’t do it. Why are you doing this? Get away from me, get away, get away.’
Carrocia responded by rattling the bathroom door, laughing at Ms Paris and telling her colleagues: ‘This is gonna be so fun,’ and ‘I love my job’.
Eventually, a third police officer arrived at the scene and helped to break down the door and restrain Ms Paris.
During this time, Ms Paris was wounded and ended up with a bloody gash on her face.
The officers reportedly made comments about how they would have to clean up blood from the floor.
Ms Paris ended up getting charged three days later – with attempted arson, assault and battery upon a police officer, resisting an officer, trespassing and cruelty to animals.
But the charges were dropped on November 23 ‘in the interest of justice and civil diversion’ with the judge citing Ms Paris’s mental health issues.
Solomon-Simmons Law has since been enlisted to represent Ms Paris, and argue she was ‘taunted, harassed and antagonised by Tulsa Police Department officers before they brutalized her while placing her under arrest for behavioral manifestations of a mental health disorder’.
The lawyers said: ‘The TPD officers involved were fully aware that Ms Paris was having a bipolar manic episode, yet they still viciously provoked and attacked Ms. Paris while laughing off her disability as if it were a joke.’
They also went on to slam the department for allegedly ‘trying to shift the blame for the incident onto the victim of a mental health episode and police brutality’.
The department issued a two-page statement saying the officers’ actions were within professional policies.
But it added: ‘To be clear, the banter between the officers outside of the presence of the suspect can be [perceived] as unprofessional and has been addressed with the officers.’
The statement also stressed the department had tried to send over members of its Community Response Team – who have mental health training – but none of them were available.
.
For more stories like this, .
