A Florida grandmother was shocked three times with a stun gun and later hit with criminal charges after she refused to let police search her house for her grandson on her 70th birthday, court documents show.
Barbara Pinkney, of Bradenton, Fla., was charged on Thursday with obstruction and battery on a law enforcement officer in connection with the incident, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by NBC News and other outlets.
The encounter took place around 7:30 a.m. at Pinkney’s home in Manatee County on Dec. 26, the day after Christmas. Pinkney says several sheriff’s deputies knocked on the door — loudly — and insisted on serving an arrest warrant to her grandson, Tevin Turner. The warrant had been issued for violation of probation for carrying a concealed weapon.
“When he was on probation he gave this as his address, but he wasn’t living here,” Pinkney later told local station WFLA.
Police say they started talking to Pinkney after someone else in the home became “uncooperative.” Pinkney demanded a search warrant but police said their arrest warrant was sufficient, according to the affidavit.
Pinkney told the deputies at the time that her grandson wasn’t in the house but they insisted on entering, video shot by Pinkney’s granddaughter-in-law shows.
In the video, Pinkney can be seen trying to close the door on the deputies. One deputy grabs her by the wrist, then a loud “crack!” can be heard, followed by Pinkney’s scream. She falls to the floor after what the affidavit says was the first shot from a stun gun.
The video does not clearly show what happened before the stun gun was used. However, the officer said Pinkney pushed him in the chest, according to the affidavit. The document says the officer struck her in the arm with the stun gun but it had no effect, so he shocked her again in the back. He then “took her to the ground” and stunned her a third time to subdue her.
Pinkney was ultimately tasered in the back, the left arm and the upper back, the court documents show. The officer ended up pinning her to the ground with his knee so he could handcuff her.
“I was just hollering. I was scared,” she told WFLA.
Pinkney’s granddaughter-in-law, Elizabeth Francisco, says she was astonished to see the sheriff’s deputies use stun guns in this case.
“It’s not something that you see every day or something you expect to happen,” she told WFLA. “Dang, this is a 70-year-old woman,” she added.
Pinkney says she’s never had any run-ins with the law, but now she’s afraid of the authorities.
“Whenever I see police, I just try to not look at them,” she said.
Police did not find Turner at the home, although the affidavit suggests he might have escaped during the commotion.
The sheriff’s office has not provided additional comment on the case.
Pinkney was arrested and later released on a $1,000 bond, CBS News reports.
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