JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (WFLA) – The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office announced the arrest of three women after an altercation between a Florida mother and a police officer over a traffic violation on October 7th outside IDEA Charter School.
His mother, Erica McGriff, was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer, resisting an officer with violence and operating a motor vehicle with a revoked driver’s license.
According to JSO, McGriff parked his car at an intersection and left it running while he was picking up his 9-year-old daughter from school.
Officer body camera video showed the altercation over the traffic violation escalating as the officer attempted to handcuff McGriff. JSO’s body camera video and a bystander video of the altercation went viral on social media.
The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said McGriff punched and bit the officer hard enough to leave a mark on his forearm.
McGriff claimed the officer hit her with a clenched fist, choked her, grabbed her by the hair and pressed his knee against her neck.
Officers’ body camera footage shows McGriff calling for help from bystanders and saying he couldn’t breathe on the ground.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump is representing McGriff, arguing that officers used excessive force during the arrest in the presence of McGriff’s children.
“This disturbing video represents yet another example of unnecessary and excessive force being used against a Black woman in what would have been a routine event,” Crump said in a statement.
JSO arrested two women on suspicion of violating the Halo Act, which establishes a 25-foot buffer zone around first responders and prohibits people from accessing the area.
“If you violently resist a police officer, you will be arrested. And if you swarm and harass a police officer or first responder after giving them a verbal warning, you are committing a crime and will be arrested,” JSO said at an Oct. 10 press conference.
