A newly released four-minute video captured the gruelling moments when a woman strapped to a chair in an Ohio jail cell was pepper-sprayed at point-blank range.
Amber Swink, 25, was restrained by a seven-point harness before an officer approached her and sprayed an orange substance into her face in the Montgomery County Jail in Dayton, Ohio in November 2015.
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Swink was arrested after a night of heavy drinking in her home and reportedly spit in an officer’s face. She told the Washington Post, although she was intoxicated during the incident, she says she remembers the pain of being sprayed as unbearable.
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“It felt like somebody just crushed up fresh peppers and made me use them as face cream,” Swink told the Washington Post. “It took my breath away. You’re fighting for air. I remember my mouth was filling with a thick slobber, like foaming up — and that was also blocking my airway.”
“I thought I might die,” she added.
The video was captured on Nov. 15, 2015, and was made public by Swink’s lawyers on Sept. 13. “Unable to protect herself or seek cover, Amber Swink is forced to inhale huge amounts of pepper spray, is unable to breathe and eventually falls unconscious,” the Brannon Law Firm, representing Swink, wrote on their website.
Swink has filed a lawsuit against the Montgomery County Sheriff’s office for using force “that amounted to torture.”
Court documents also accuse the sheriff’s department of trying to cover up the incident by destroying the video evidence to “prevent it from becoming public.”
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Global News has reached out to the department but has not yet received comment.
Montgomery County Sheriff Phil Plummer told the Washington Post that he hasn’t seen the video but acknowledged that Swink was pepper-sprayed while restrained, which violated the department’s use-of-force protocol.
He did not comment on the specifics of the case but told the Washington Post: “We will definitely oppose the lawsuit. This isn’t that egregious where she’s walked away with any serious injuries. The officer she spit on should sue her.”