Aviana White, 27, was a passenger in her brother’s – 21-year-old Miles Spears – car when they were pulled over on Monday morning in Pass Christian, Mississippi
A woman and two witnesses claim that a Mississippi police officer tased the woman with a stun gun in the stomach even though she claimed to be pregnant and wrestled to the ground. She was later charged with assaulting the officer.
Aviana White, 27, was a passenger in her brother’s – 21-year-old Miles Spears – car when they were pulled over on Monday morning in Pass Christian, Mississippi.
According to Police Chief Tim Hendricks, the officer had asked to see White’s licence and name so she could drive her brother’s car since he didn’t have his license.
White asserted hat the law does not require her to give her information, so she refused.
Speaking with the Sun Herald, White believed that her refusal angered the officer, whom she and a witness identified as Kandice Clayton.
Police later learned that White had an outstanding arrest warrant from a 2014 misdemeanor domestic violence in Long Beach.
After the siblings were instructed to stay in the car – which they complied – White called her mother, Mary Spear, to pick up the car.
When she arrived, Mary said that the scene was calm, and police told her that a tow truck was coming for the car.
The siblings soon got out of the car as Spear was arrested for disorderly conduct and put in the police vehicle.
White walked off, calling the police department to voice her concerns with the treatment she was subjected to.
White walked off, calling the police department to voice her concerns with the treatment she was subjected to. She alerted a charging officer she was pregnant but the cop shot a stun gun at her multiple times in the abdomen
According to a nearby witness, who had gone out on her porch to observe the scene, White stood under a tree while talking on the phone.
The officer ‘got in her car, sped down to this girl, and the girl wasn’t going nowhere,’ said witness, Alicia Burton.
‘so it didn’t have to escalate the way it did. I feel it could have went totally different if (the officer) had handled it different.’
Burton added that the officer charged toward White, grabbing her. She said White screamed ‘Wait, I’m pregnant,’ resisting as the officer manhandled her.
Both Burton and Mrs Spear said that the officer wrestled White to the ground.
All women give accounts of White screaming that she was pregnant multiple times as the two witnesses also said that they too alerted the officer that the woman was pregnant.
Burton said that the officer was ‘tasing that girl all over her body.’ Her mother said that White was shocked three times in the abdomen and on the leg.
‘I’m upset,’ Burton said.
‘That was a situation that escalated that didn’t have to escalate the way it did.’
The Sun Herald was scheduled to speak with White at her mother’s house Tuesday afternoon but police got there first, arresting her on felony charges of assaulting an officer
Hendricks said there are four videotapes of the incident with two from a patrol car and two from body cameras.
He added that they reviewed the tapes for 30 minutes of video. He said he won’t release the video as to not interfere with the case against White.
White was said to be allowed to go to the hospital and said that she had bruising from the encounter.
Hendrick added that the woman was to be at the police department at 10am on Tuesday but she did not show.
The Sun Herald was scheduled to speak with her at her mother’s house that afternoon but police got there first, arresting her on felony charges of assaulting an officer.
‘She was very defiant with the officer, and that’s what led up to this,’ Hendricks said.
‘The officer asked her repeatedly to stay in the car and she refused to do that.
‘I think the charges are justified.’
The police chief added that n internal board comprised of one civilian and two officers will review the incident.
The officer in question is still working at the department.