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Arcata, CA – A law student was arrested by California State University Police at Humboldt State University after she resisted arrest and latched on to a female officer’s hair on Saturday (videos below).
Police said the incident began at about 8:21 p.m. on June 16, when officers spotted someone “hanging dangerously” out of a sunroof as a car drove down the street, according KRCR.
The officers initiated a traffic stop, and arrested the juvenile who had been hanging out of the sunroof for providing false identification to a peace officer, public intoxication, and battery on a peace officer, according to a statement Humboldt State University released to the media.
The videos posted to social media began as a female officer provided information to the juvenile’s friends about where they were taking her, and the woman sitting in the front passenger seat of the vehicle became rude and aggressive toward the officer.
The situation quickly escalated and the officer attempted to take 20-year-old Samantha Alonso Luna into custody after she gave police an incorrect name and appeared drunk, WREG reported.
Alonso Luna’s friend filmed the altercation from the backseat of the car, and Alonso Luna posted it to Facebook in five separate, heavily-edited segments on Sunday, along with a post that sought to excuse her underage, drunken behavior and pin the blame on the officer she attacked.
“This is a video of me getting arrested yesterday at Oyster Fest by a white female cop FOR NO REASON. She pulled us over for my friend sticking her head out of the sunroof. I’m am not saying that was ok. BUT WE were NOT BEING RUDE, WE WERE NOT ‘INTOXICATED IN A PUBLIC PLACE’, we were Passengers in A CAR. Not harming anyone,” Alonso Luna posted to her Facebook page, ignore the fact she was not actually old enough to consume alcoholic beverages.
Her post went on to claim that she did nothing wrong, despite the fact that the videos showed she grabbed an officer by the hair and refused to let go.
“It’s time for a new system. I’m a law student and this is why. People told me I should have just resisted … I REFUSE to let MY future be destroyed over a traffic stop,” Alonso Luna wrote.
But the series of videos she posted told a very different story and showed that Alonso Luna did, in fact, aggressively resist arrest.
The first video began with the officer telling the Alonso Luna that her friend was being taken to the Humboldt County jail.
“What other information can we have?” Alonso Luna asked.
“That’s it, that’s all you need,” the officer told her.
“That’s all the information?” Alonso Luna asked again.
“Yes, what other information do you think you need?” asked the officer, who appeared to be getting annoyed by the inebriated woman’s questions. They seemed well into the conversation before the video started.
“Why are you being so rude?” Alonso Luna asked the officer in the video.
“You’re the one who’s being rude,” the officer replied.
“How am I being rude?” Alonso Luna asked.
“Seriously? You’re about two seconds from going to jail for public intoxication. Do you not understand that? So I would stop talking if I were you,” the officer advised her.
“I just explained to you why she’s going to jail and where she’s going. So what other information would you like from me?” the officer asked.
“How long do you think it will take for them to process her?” a man off-camera asked politely.
“It depends on how busy the jail is,” the officer told him.
“Don’t worry Shay, we’ll come get you,” Alonso Luna told her friend who was being arrested.
At that point, the video showed the officer radioed the dispatcher to check the identity of the difficult woman in the car, and advised “she’s not the one in custody.”
The first video ended, but when the second began, the woman was arguing vigorously with the officer, insisting she had not lied about her name. She had simply left out part of it, by telling the officer her name was “Samantha Luna,” rather than “Alonso Luna,” her legal name that appeared on her driver’s license.
In the video, the officer asked her what was on her driver’s license.
“I go by Luna, that is my last name,” the woman said.
“What’s on your license?” the officer asked.
“I’m Mexican. I have two last names,” the woman snapped in the video.
“When I asked your last name then you should have told me Alonso Luna,” the officer told her.
“That is my last name. Samantha Luna is my last name,” the woman insisted.
“What’s on your license?” the officer asked in the video.
“Alonso Luna,” the woman replied.
“And that’s what you should have told me,” the officer told her.
“My last name is Luna. You know what? My dad isn’t my actual dad,” the woman interrupted the officer.
“Get out of the car,” the officer told the woman, as she opened her door.
“No, I’m not getting out of the car. No I’m not,” Alonso Luna replied. The video showed she immediately began resisting arrest.
“You’re going to jail,” the officer told her.
“What the f- -k?” Alonso Luna began screaming in the video.
“You are going to jail,” the officer told her again, as another officer approached to assist the first officer in taking Alonso Luna out of the vehicle as she fought.
“Get it on video, get it on video, get it on video!” the woman screamed to her friends.
“You’re going to jail. You don’t get to resist,” the first officer told her as Alonso Luna fought both officers trying to take her into custody.
“I told you my license number you crazy f–king b—h,” Alonso Luna shrieked, and then she reached and grabbed onto the officer’s hair.
“Let go of my hair,” the officer told her, rather calmly at first.
The other officer tried to separate the woman from the officer.
“Let go of her hair. Let go of her hair,” he said calmly, the video showed.
“Let go of me, let go of me!” Alonso Luna shrieked in response.
“We are taking you guys to court,” the helpful friend filming from the backseat informed the officers as they struggled with Alonso Luna.
The second video ended there, and the third picked up with the officers attempting to subdue the woman on the sidewalk, as she continued to pull the female officer’s hair.
“Let go of her hair,” the second officer told Alonso Luna.
“No!” the woman replied, very definitely.
At that point, the video showed a third officer joined in to help subdue the woman, and warned Alonso Luna that he was going to pepper spray her.
The third video ended there but the fourth began with Alonso Luna on the ground, violently fighting the officers.
“Sam, stop resisting!” her helpful friend said from behind the cell phone camera.
“Stop resisting!” two officers yelled at the woman as they struggled on the ground with her.
“And you guys, you don’t need three of you…” the video showed the friend started to lecture the officers on police tactics when Alonso Luna interrupted her, screaming unintelligibly and snarling like a wild animal as she kicked and fought with the officers who were trying to hold her down.
“Just cut my hair,” the female officer told the other officers calmly, as a fourth officer joined the fray to try and subdue Alonso Luna.
“Cut my hair, seriously, cut my hair,” the officer said, as yet another officer arrived to assist.
Suddenly, the female officer’s head popped up, released from the suspect’s grasp.
“Thank you,” she told her fellow officers. The video showed Alonso Luna continued to fight the other four officers as the female officer stepped back and collected herself for a few seconds.
She was still resisting arrest when that video ended.
The last video was a snippet of an officer explaining to Alonso Luna’s friends that they needed her to comply.
“Let me talk to her. Sam, stop!” the friend urged as she filmed.
Alonso Luna was eventually subdued and arrested for resisting arrest, battery on a peace officer, public intoxication, and providing false identification to a police officer, according to the statement released by the university.
University Police Chief Donn Peterson said there was far more to the story than what the videos that were posted by Alonso Luna showed, WREG reported.
Chief Peterson said that when the officers stopped the car, it appeared “several of the occupants of the vehicle were intoxicated and underage.”
“Beyond that, we’re still investigating this, and I really don’t want to say too much more. Obviously, there’s been a lot of social media attention. I’m aware of that. I’ve watched the videos. There’s other videos that I’ve watched as well, not the ones that were released on social media. And so, you know my part here is to do a fair and objective analysis of everything that occurred,” the chief told WREG.
Chief Peterson said it was too soon to make any determinations and pointed out that the videos posted to social media started well after the incident began.
The statement from Humboldt State University said that Alonso Luna was not a student at that school.
You can see the videos of the incident below. NOTE: Multiple videos, scroll down for more: