WESTLAND, Mich. – Questions Monday surrounding the amount of force used to arrest a woman over a report of a missing cell phone have emerged in Westland.
The woman says her broken arm results from being thrown to the ground, but the officer said he slipped.
Local 4 received the body camera footage that police say shows 20-year-old Makayla Johnson resisting arrest.
Johnson has hired an attorney and says the officer broke her arm.
“I heard the snap,” said Johnson. “It sounded like someone broke a thick piece of wood.”
Johnson’s arm was shattered when she says she pulled back from Westland police officer Shamir Garcia as he grabbed her arm hard.
Garcia has a background in MMA, as he once competed in fights as “Bam Bam” Garcia.
“I didn’t feel like I fell, though,” Johnson said. “I felt like I was thrown to the ground. I have a bruise on my back that feels like it was his foot or something, and I remember his knees and stuff being pressed into my body.”
Johnson says she asked police to help her get her things from her ex’s house, but she’s the one facing criminal charges all over a cell phone.
The phone is her ex’s, which Johnson says got mixed up in her things, and she was returning it.
“He approached me as soon as I got out of the car,” Johnson said. “I said, ‘Are you going to search me?’ He said you are under arrest, and then I am on the ground screaming in pain.”
You could hear the officer try to explain what occurred.
“I slipped on this mud right here,” said Garcia.
The bodycam footage seen below shows another side of the story.
Police say the video shows Johnson resisting arrest. Now Johnson has retained attorney Greg Rohl.
“You’ve gotten essentially a cage fighter for at least the last eight years fought men twice his size handling a 20-year-old female who snapped her arm like a twig,” said Rohl.
“We are aware of a recent incident where officers used force on a person actively resisting arrest. The response to resistance led to an apparent arm injury, and the person was immediately taken to a local hospital by paramedics.
The Westland Police Department conducts a thorough review in each and every incident of response to resistance, and this incident is currently in the review process.”
Westland Police Department
Garcia took days off after the incident, and Local 4 was told that investigators would interview him to get all of the facts from his side of the story.