Two more Loveland, Colorado, police officers and a sergeant were placed on administrative leave after the arrest of a 73-year-old woman with dementia — an encounter that is now the focus of a criminal investigation.
Officer Austin
Hopp was placed on leave earlier this month after a federal lawsuit accused him
and a second officer of injuring Karen Garner during the June 26 arrest, which
was captured on body camera video.
Garner suffered
a dislocated shoulder, fractured arm and sprained wrist after she was slammed
to the ground, hogtied and then placed in the back of a police car, according
to the suit.
She was walking
home when she was stopped for allegedly trying to steal $13.88 worth of items
from a Walmart. Garner's attorney, Sarah Schielke, said her client has dementia
and sensory aphasia, which impairs her ability to verbally communicate with
people or understand others' communications.
Schielke said
because of the dementia Garner forgot to pay for the items, which were
retrieved by Walmart employees.
On Tuesday, the
Loveland City Manager's Office announced that officers Tyler Blackett and Daria
Jalali, along with Sgt. Philip Metzler, were also on administrative leave. It
was not immediately clear if the leave was paid.
Jalali was the
responding officer during Garner's arrest and Metzler was the supervisor who
arrived on scene, according to the lawsuit.
Justine Bruno, a
spokesperson for the city manager, said Blackett is a community service
officer. Bruno said CSOs are primarily responsible for transporting suspects to
jail but could not speak directly on Blackett's role in the incident.
The disciplinary
actions come days after Schielke released a video of three Loveland officers laughing about Garner's
arrest.
The footage came
from a camera inside the Loveland Police Department and includes subtitles that
haven’t been verified by NBC News.
In it, Hopp says
he thought the arrest went "great." The officer, along with two
others, then watch the body camera video. Hopp asks, “Ready for the pop?”
appearing to refer to the moment when he dislocated Garner's shoulder.
Schielke said
she obtained the video after her client was charged with theft, resisting
arrest and obstruction. The charges were later dismissed, she said.
The Loveland Police Department said in a
statement Wednesday that the officers' actions during the
arrest are now the subject of a criminal investigation led by District Attorney
Gordon McLaughlin and the Fort Collins Police Services.
McLaughlin said
in the statement that he will consider the officers' comments about the arrest,
along with other evidence, in making his charging decision.
McLaughlin went
on to say he will ask investigators "to interview all relevant witnesses
and assess the appropriateness of charges for anyone whom the facts indicate
may bear criminal culpability."
The four
officers could not be reached Thursday at phone numbers listed for them, and
it's not clear if they have obtained legal counsel. The Fraternal Order of
Police did not immediately return a request for comment.
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