A white deputy in Louisiana is under investigation after a video showed the officer grabbing a Black woman by her arm and hair and repeatedly slamming her on the pavement in September. According to The Washington Post, Shantel Arnold said she was assaulted by the officer while walking home after being attacked by a group of children.

The officer got out of his vehicle as Arnold was walking and used force on her because she allegedly refused to listen when he told her to stop. Bystanders captured video of the incident as the officer dragged the woman to the ground and slammed her on the pavement.

Arnold's family said she was first attacked by children on that day because she is an easy target for bullies. The family said their loved one is 4'8" and weighs about 100 pounds. She is also missing her left eye from a previous car accident.

After getting away from the children, the Louisiana woman tried to walk home. Speaking to an internal affairs investigator, Arnold said that's when she encountered the officer.

“I’m on my way home. I ain’t make it all the way to the block, the police come out of nowhere, swarming, getting me like, ‘Come here.’ I’m like, ‘What’s going on? What y’all doing?’” she said.

Arnold’s uncle, Tony Givens, said the officer then proceeded to attack his niece. Lionel Gray, Arnold's stepfather, said he witnessed the encounter.

“She didn’t have a chance to pull away because, you know, this guy was strong,” Gray said. “He grabbed her arm, and some kind of move he made, and she went down to the ground.”

Another witness said the officer pulled out several braids from Arnold's scalp while dragging her on the ground. The officer also appears to place a knee on Arnold’s chest.

A spokeswoman with the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana (ACLU) said the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office is investigating the officer, who hasn't been identified. It's not clear if the deputy has been disciplined.

“This video depicts a Jefferson Parish sheriff’s deputy engaged in horrid acts of brutality against an innocent woman,” Alanah Odoms, executive director of the ACLU of Louisiana, said.

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Unlike many other agencies around the country, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office doesn't use body cameras.

Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joseph P. Lopinto III said his office previously didn't have the budget for the body cameras. But the department has now agreed to an $8.7 million deal to buy 500 body cameras, according to the sheriff. Lopinto said the officers will be trained to use the cameras by the end of the year.

In response to outrage over police killings of Black people across the nation, the Justice Department announced a new policy in June. According to the department, officers at its law enforcement agencies will be required to wear body cameras when making planned arrests or when serving search warrants.

A recent investigation by ProPublica and WRKF/WWNO concluded that more than 70% of people shot by Jefferson Parish deputies in the past eight years were Black. Additionally, 12 of the 16 people killed by sheriff’s deputies during the eight-year period were Black men.

After reviewing the study, the ACLU of Louisiana demanded that federal prosecutors investigate the sheriff’s office in Jefferson Parish.

“It is no secret that the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office has a deep-rooted history of racial discrimination and cruelty toward residents of color,” Odoms told NOLA. “The harsh political reality is the sheriff of Jefferson Parish is wholly unaccountable to the people.”

Shantel-Arnold

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