Miami, FL — A Miami-Dade police officer has been placed on leave — but not fired — after an alarming video was posted on social media showing him with several other officers violently arresting a Black woman who reportedly called the police for help because a man pointed a gun on her.
A cell phone video of the arrest has been posted on Twitter and now has over 700,000 views. In the video, Green, who was filming, can be heard asking the officers to “please calm down.”
“She needs to be corrected, if anything,” one of the officers responded before he grabbed Loving to arrest her.
The police department recently released a body camera footage from the perspective of the lead officer, Alejandro Giraldo. There, he could be heard saying, “You need to chill out, because if not you’re going to be arrested. You’re being disorderly right now. If you don’t calm down, I’m going to bring you in.”
Loving replied, “Why do I have to be corrected when my life was just threatened and my daughter’s sick?”
She did not appear to fight back and struggle although she repeatedly pleads them not to touch her. Still, the officers pushed her to the ground, grabbed her wrists, and forcefully handcuffed her.
“I just want to call my kids, my phone is dead,” Loving was heard saying. “I got a gun pointed in front of me, I’m stressed out.”
At one point in the video, Green can be heard asking why Loving was arrested. The officer replied that she was uncooperative while not obeying their orders, although both videos show otherwise.
“No, it’s just him [the arresting officer] using his authority to do what he wants to do!” the woman replied.
After the arrest, Loving suffered from injuries in her elbow and back. She said she went to the hospital to have her neck and throat checked. She told Essence, “I’ve been crying and sad ever since, like every day. I’ve had to take off work because my body is physically in pain.”
Meanwhile, Frank Tumm has also been arrested, but Loving believed it only happened because the cell phone video already went public.
Moreover, Miami-Dade Police Department Director Juan Perez described the video “deeply troubling” and said that it was “in no way reflective of our core values of integrity, respect, service, and fairness.” He added that “those that violated any of our policies and/or procedures” will be held accountable.
Giraldo, the lead officer in the incident, was “relieved of duty” and his position as a field training officer while an investigation is ongoing, the Miami-Dade Police Department said.
Loving is planning on filing a lawsuit against the officer and the police department.