Muskogee, OK — Last week, an innocent 84-year-old grandma was attacked by police, pepper sprayed, arrested, and hospitalized after officers chased her son during a traffic stop. On Friday, the graphic body camera video of that attack was released showing the horrid and outright insane response to her son rolling a stop sign.
Police were after the victim’s son, who they say refused to stop and ran into her home instead. When officers showed up, according to Smith and the body camera video, they kicked in her door and as she got up to see who was there — she was met with a face full of chemical agent.
“Turn around or I’ll spray you!” screams the cop just before dousing this innocent elderly woman in the face with the painful spray. Smith then falls to the ground in agony.
The body cam footage then shows police shoot her son with a taser because they said he refused to come out. With his hands in the air and walking toward police, Smith’s son was tased and fell to the ground.
All of this over a stop sign.
According to Smith, after police pepper sprayed her for no reason, they arrested her, dragged her to the police car and brought her to jail. Clearly stressed over being kidnapped and thrown in a cell, this 84-year-old grandma began to have a panic attack. She was then rushed to the hospital.
The Muskogee police department says they released the body camera footage to maintain public trust in an exhibit of transparency. While it’s certainly noteworthy to release the footage, the last thing this video does is maintain public trust in police.
When watching the horrifying video below, ask yourself if you think these cops would treat their own grandma this way. Ms. Smith had committed no crime and posed no danger to these officers, but she was still attacked and her life put at risk.
It was unclear as to what police charged the woman with, however, it is likely the standard ‘resisting, interfering, or obstructing.’
Smith now plans to take legal action against the department for her assault and the taxpayers, not police, will be held liable for this disturbing behavior.
