Andrew Emmett | The Free Thought Project
2016/11/23
Harris County, TX – Caught on video deploying a Taser against a mother in a wheelchair simply recording her daughter’s arrest, several deputies from the Harris County Sheriff’s Office are under an internal affairs investigation for needlessly attacking the disabled woman. Instead of treating her like a human being, the deputies can clearly be seen grabbing her cellphone and throwing it away before tasing the disabled woman until she collapsed out of her wheelchair.
Last Wednesday, 36-year-old Sheketha Holman arrived at a Valero gas station in northwest Houston after discovering her daughter was under arrest for marijuana possession and criminal mischief. A surveillance camera recorded Holman in her wheelchair as she filmed her daughter’s arrest with her cellphone camera.
“I was taking pictures of them, and he was like, ‘Just leave the property, you’re trespassing. They don’t want you here,’” Holman told KHOU.
“I was like, ‘I’m trying to leave. I can’t take off running, but I’m trying to leave,’” Holman recalled. “‘Oh, you’re resisting?’ I was like, ‘I’m not resisting.’ That’s when I had my hands up like this.”
Despite the fact that Holman appears non-threatening in the video, a deputy can be seen abruptly snatching the phone out her hand before immediately tossing it away. Instead of using her cellphone footage as potential evidence against Holman or her daughter, the deputy appears to be obstructing justice by attempting to destroy evidence during an open investigation.
Ironically wearing a shirt with the words “Love, Love, Love” written across the front, Holman’s body suddenly seized up before falling out of her wheelchair and collapsing to the pavement when a deputy deployed a Taser against her. After repeatedly telling deputies that she was physically unable to comfortably place both arms behind her injured back, Holman dropped to the ground as deputies ignored her medical concerns.
Due to several years of severe back injuries, including back surgery and a hit-and-run accident, Holman relies upon a wheelchair and cannot understand why the arresting deputies felt excessive force was necessary against a disabled woman posing no actual threat.
“When I came to, I was like face down or whatever, and my leg was underneath me,” Holamn remembered. “They still was tasing me, man. That’s wrong.”
Charged with resisting arrest and trespassing, Holman is scheduled to return to court next month.
In response to the newly released surveillance video, the sheriff’s office recently released the following statement:
“The Harris County Sheriff’s Office has an open Internal Affairs incident report. It is currently being investigated by IAD personnel. When the investigation is complete, if any policies and procedures were violated, then disciplinary actions will be implemented. These actions may be suspension and or termination.”
In a recent interview with ABC13, Holman asserted, “I feel like [the officers] used the law to abuse a disabled person who can’t fight back. I think they should be punished.”
None of the deputies involved in Holman’s unnecessarily violent arrest have yet been identified or indicted.
Watch the video below:
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