A Georgia cop has been removed from active duty after a controversial arrest went viral on social media. According to the AJC, the incident involving a Black woman took place on Tuesday on the front porch of her Loganville, Georgia, home.
Cell phone video of the arrest was posted on TikTok Wednesday and shows an officer, identified as Michael Oxford, attempting to detain the 22-year-old woman before tasing her. The AJC reports that by Thursday evening, there were 14 million views of the footage and it was shared 157,000 times. The viral nature prompted the Gwinnett County Police Department to issue a statement.
“The Gwinnett Police Department is aware of the video that has been circulating of an arrest made by one of our officers. The incident is under investigation,” the department tweeted. In a release, authorities outlined the incident in detail claiming that Kyndesia Smith, the woman seen on video being accosted, was in some way involved in an earlier altercation with a neighbor and her young child.
Police were called to the area by the neighbor, who then pointed Officer Oxford toward the Loganville home where the defendant was gathered with other women. According to the AJC, Smith was not the person seen on the neighbor’s video surveillance throwing a bottle at her car and threatening her son. When the officer arrived, they say the officer attempted to speak with that woman, identified as Aytra Thomas, but Smith began “yelling at him.” When the officer warned Smith of what would happen if she did not cooperate, the situation did not change. He attempted to arrest Smith, which is what social media users saw on the viral video.
Officers claim that after Smith was tased and placed in handcuffs, she “kicked the officer and continued to be uncooperative.”
“The police department takes all use of force seriously,” Gwinnett police said in the statement. “We have a long history of being transparent public servants to the citizens of Gwinnett County. We will continue to keep our citizens up-to-date with information on this case as the facts are collected.”