LILLINGTON, N.C. (AP) — A teenage girl from North Carolina who filmed a deputy tackling her sister says she felt harassed during the recorded altercation that ends with her also being brought to the ground.
The deputy has been put on leave, pending an investigation.
Aumbria Urban told WRAL-TV that it was hard to watch her 14-year-old sister being tackled by a “grown man” during the altercation in Harnett County. She said she posted her video online to make a point about law enforcement.
“Seeing my little sister, she’s 14, and being tackled like that by a grown man, it was hard for me,” Urban said.
The one-minute clip that Urban, 17, recorded on her cellphone ends with a deputy approaching her and appearing to bring her to the ground.
“For them to tackle me for recording is absolutely wrong. I feel like I was harassed. I feel like that was assault,” she said.
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The video starts with a deputy detaining a teenage boy and putting him in a cruiser. Another deputy then tackles Urban’s younger sister while trying to take away the phone she also was using to record what happened.
Urban herself was recording, and can be heard yelling, “What did she do?” On her video, after the sister kicks her phone toward Urban, a deputy approaches her and appears to bring her down while she yells, “Ow, I didn’t do anything!”
The Harnett County Sheriff’s Office issued a statement saying that one of the deputies has been placed on administrative leave and that the State Bureau of Investigation has been called in by the local prosecutor to probe what happened.
A sheriff’s office news release said deputies saw the teens in a vehicle matching a caller’s description of drug activities.
“When the deputy approached the vehicle, the smell of marijuana was detected coming from the passenger compartment,” the release said.
The girls began recording as deputies arrested the teen who had been in the driver’s seat. The sheriff’s office said the 17-year-old male driver was arrested and charged after a gun was found under the driver’s seat.
Urban said deputies returned their phones and didn’t charge the sisters with any crimes.
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