70yr old Grandma, Barbara Pinkney, was tasered 3 times by a Florida Sheriff’s deputy on Thursday. The official police officer’s report claims ‘obstruction and battery on a law enforcement officer’, as justification for use of excessive force.
Officers apparently attended Barbara’s home looking for her grandson, Tevin Turner, who was wanted on a probation violation for carrying a concealed weapon but Barbara refused to let the police into her home unless they could show her a search warrant. Barbara told police that Turner had apparently given her address while he was on probation but that he wasn’t living there. The officer told Barbara that he didn’t need to show her a search warrant because they’d already obtained an arrest warrant for Turner, however it’s unclear if the officer subsequently showed Barbara any official documentation at all before forcing his way into her home.
Ms Pinkney’s daughter-in-law, Elizabeth Francisco, managed to capture most of the incident on her mobile phone and although the footage isn’t ideal quality it certainly challenges the officers claims that Barbara had “pushed him in the chest” before he then tackled her and it doesn’t show any obvious justifications for using excessive force, let alone hitting her with a stun gun, 3 times. You can however see Barbara pinned to the ground in pain and you can hear a toddler crying in the background. During the incident, which lasts well over 3mins, you can also hear the daughter-in-law shout “she’s bleeding” and then a clearly emotional Elizabeth repeatedly tries to tell someone next to her that the officer is “on Barbara” before you then hear Barbara’s screams get even louder and a toddler crying for her “nanny”
The officers report claims that Barbara continued to resist even after he “took her to the ground” so he struck her with the stun gun again. He also claims that despite hitting her with a stun gun 3 times, the weapon appeared to have no effect, so he was forced to secure her with his knee while another officer handcuffed Barbara.
In the official report, officer’s also claim that while they didn’t find Turner at the home, they accept that he could have escaped out the back during the “chaos” at the front door. Failing to cover all exits, especially given the fact they were searching for a fugitive with a concealed weapon, seems to imply a level of extreme incompetence but might add weight to the officer’s claims that he was justified in using excessive force.
Most of the MSM and news channels have decided to show selective snippets of the video or nothing at all but we’ve managed to find the full 3min 15sec video for you so you can watch and make up your own mind folks…
https://www.facebook.com/100008257201642/videos/vb.100008257201642/2537858969832652/
