Disturbing video shows Metro Transit Police arresting a bruised and bloodied woman as she struggles with officers.
Metro Transit Police say the woman assaulted an officer.
“It does not take four cops to put a 90-pound woman on the ground,” Alexia Clinton is heard saying on the video. “She’s bleeding!”
Clinton recorded the encounter on her cellphone at the Gallery Place-Chinatown Metro station Saturday evening.
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“If you know that she’s mentally ill, you’ve supposedly gone through the training to deescalate, why would you approach her this way?” said Clinton said.
Police say the woman was behaving erratically and screaming at other customers.
Clinton said she tried to tell police that a man had threatened to stab the woman.
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“I was just screaming,” Clinton said. “I was screaming, like, the man that actually committed the crime is over here. He’, like, leaning against the little wall just watching all this happen, which is just infuriating.”
In a statement, Metro said, in part, the woman was “restrained by Transit Police officers after physically assaulting an officer on the Red Line platform at Gallery Place-Chinatown. She sustained an injury to the mouth, and OC spray was deployed. Video clips of the incident circulating online do not include the assault on the officer.”
Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Alexandra Bailey called the video horrifying.
“They feel that their officers did nothing wrong, that there’s going to be no accountability and no discipline for these officers, and I find that wholly unacceptable,” she said.
Police said the woman was taken to a hospital after it was determined she needed mental health services. She was not charged with a crime.
Police arrested the man who Clinton said had a knife, charging him with possession of a prohibited weapon.
Bailey and Clinton want to find the woman to make sure she’s OK and gets the help she needs.
They want any video of the incident to be released.
News4 asked Metro if it can show video of the woman assaulting the officer. The transit agency said the incident is under review so it can’t release the video.
D.C. Council member Charles Allen said in a statement Metro Transit Police need more oversight and accountability.
“Incidents like this one are exactly why WMATA needs a civilian-led review board that can investigate and review any incident involving Metro Transit Police officers and the public,” Allen said.
