Holly MatkinRio Vista, CA – The family of a drunken woman, who was slammed to the ground by a police officer when she repeatedly tried to push past him at a traffic stop, has demanded that the arresting officer be fired (video below).
“I want to see the same aggressive action that he took with my child done to him,” Deshaunna Payne told WDSU. “Yes, I would like to see him fired.”
The incident occurred on Sunday night, when a Rio Vista Police officer stopped a vehicle that had a suspended registration, Rio Vista Police Chief Dan Dailey said.
The four family members inside the car insisted that they had just paid for the registration, and claimed that officers refused to look at documentation that they allegedly tried to show them.
One of the officers told the driver, Mea Thomas, that the vehicle was going to be impounded, at which point she began arguing with him, KTXL reported.
One of the passengers, Tyrone Clayton Jr., said he placed a call to some of his relatives to head over to the scene to record what was occurring, according to WDSU.
“Just being pulled over, I fear for my life every time as an African American in Rio Vista,” Clayton said.
The officers ordered everyone in Thomas’ vehicle to get out of the car so it could be inventoried and towed. When they refused, the officer began detaining each of them individually, bodycam footage showed.
Meanwhile, Clayton’s stepmother, Payne, and his stepsister, 31-year-old Cherish Thomas, pulled up at the scene, WDSU reported.
“I have four kids in that car,” Payne said of her adult children. “I wanted to make sure they were OK.”
The women began yelling at the officers, and were repeatedly told to back away from the traffic stop, bodycam footage showed.
“Don’t f–kin’ touch me,” Payne told one of the officers. “I don’t gotta do s–t!”
The women backed towards their vehicle while they continued to argue with the officer.
The officer returned to the traffic stop, but as they were detaining the remaining passengers, Payne and Cherish closed in on them again.
“Okay, you guys need to get out of the road, or you guys are going to be sitting in a [patrol] car too,” one officer warned them.
“B—h, shut up,” Cherish retorted.
“I’m gonna sit right here in my car and watch,” Payne told him.
“I hope you do,” he responded.
Payne got into her vehicle and closed the door, then immediately stepped back out again. Cherish continued to yell at the officers from outside the opened passenger door.
“You guys need to get out of here, or you’re all gonna be arrested,” the officer finally told them.
He then instructed the second officer to start conducting an inventory of the car they had originally stopped, then stood by to ensure the women didn’t interfere by returning to the area of the vehicle they were impounding.
Cherish and Payne stood outside their car narrating cell phone footage of the scene for a moment, before Cherish started to push past the officer for a closer vantage point.
“Don’t come close to me,” he warned, as she disregarded him and forged ahead.
“Ok. You need to go this way,” the officer said, grabbing Cherish’s wrist.
He scuffled with her briefly before slamming her to the ground.
“Get him off my daughter!” Payne yelled in a cell phone video of the altercation. “Get him off my f–king daughter now!”
The second officer quickly grabbed Payne’s arm to prevent her from running towards Cherish and the other officer.
“I wasn’t trying to attack them. He slammed my baby,” Payne later told WDSU. “I went in mother mode to protect my child.”
“You know what, you’re a b—h,” Cherish told the officer as she laid face down on the dirt, bodycam footage showed. “You’re stupid. Stupid.”
“How much have you drank?” he asked her at one point, but she only responded with drunken laughter.
“He hurt my leg too. I can’t walk,” she said nonchalantly a moment later.
A total of four people were arrested as a result of the incident, KTXL reported.
Cherish was charged with resisting arrest, obstructing or delaying an investigation, and public intoxication.
Two of the other individuals were charged with felony vandalism for attempting to escape from the patrol vehicles by kicking the windows and doors, WDSU reported.
Cherish said that she went to the hospital on Monday due to sore legs and headaches that she claimed were the result of her arrest.
She also denied having pushed the officer, WDSU reported.
“I was scared. I’m not going to lie,” Cherish said. “Because at the end of the day, that’s a police officer, and they can do what they want to do.”
“He’s a police officer. And I’m [120 pounds],” she continued. “So, what am I going to do? Fight him? No.”
The family said that they have hired an attorney, and that they plan to fight the charges against them, KTXL reported.
They have also demanded that the officer who arrested Cherish be disciplined for using force against her.
“He’s three times bigger than her,” Payne complained to KCRG. “That was unnecessary.”
“That’s a woman. You’re double, triple her size,” Clayton added. “What was the need for the use of force?”
The officer who arrested her has not been placed on leave, but the department is investigating the use-of-force incident, Chief Dailey told KTXL.
The Rio Vista Police Department released over an hour of footage of the altercation from eight different bodycams on Tuesday, KCRA reported.
You can watch footage of the officers’ encounter with Cherish and her family in the videos below: