The Miami-Dade Police Department is reviewing their policies and practices after video posted to social media appears to show a woman with a double amputation falling from her wheelchair during a confrontation with officers last Saturday.
According to police, the incident took place at a Chevron gas station in Homestead, Florida around 7 p.m. Saturday after officers responded to reports of a woman panhandling.
Police say the woman had been asked to leave the premises but refused, prompting the 911 call. It is not known if a gas station employee or patron was the one who made the call.
When officers arrived they placed the woman, 52-year-old Mary Luis Brown, under arrest for trespassing.
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Jay King, a singer-songwriter who lives in the Miami-Dade area, recorded what happened next on his phone, as officers put handcuffs on Brown.
It’s not clear what happened but Brown is seen falling forward from her wheelchair and onto the pavement.
“Stop hurting me!” Brown can be heard screaming in the video. “You see what you did? Would you get me up off this ground?”
“It doesn’t have to go that far to where you can’t at least pick her up off the floor,” King later told 7 News Miami. “No matter what she did, it wasn’t that bad.”
Police say Brown was transported to jail in an ambulance, and was released from custody the next day.
However, the video’s popularity on social media – and the resulting reports from several local media outlets – has prompted Miami-Dade officials to admit they need to review their policies when it comes to dealing with people with disabilities.
“Command level personnel have viewed the video along with the officers’ body worn camera footage and after reviewing the incident, have realized that as an agency we need to provide our law enforcement officers additional resources to aid them in facilitating the transport of disabled individuals, so that situations such as these are handled in a more amicable manner in the future,” the Miami-Dade Police Department said in a statement.
As mentioned in the statement, both officers were wearing body cameras, the footage of which has not yet been released to the public.
Brown, who is homeless, told 7 News Miami she is still considering whether to initiate a lawsuit against the department over her treatment.
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