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A Florida mother is accusing a Jacksonville police officer of using excessive force after she was arrested outside her daughter's school, an encounter that was caught on video and has now gone viral.
The incident happened the afternoon of Oct. 7 outside an IDEA charter school in Jacksonville's Riverview neighborhood.
Erika McGriff, 39, had parked her car in an intersection and left it running while picking up her 9-year-old daughter in the rain, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.
"I asked the principal what was the proper procedure when picking up the walkers whenever it was raining," McGriff later said in a press conference on Tuesday. "He explained to me the procedures. I then went to pick up my daughter."
JSO officers said McGriff's driver's license had been revoked in the past. An officer working at the school, Randy Holton, approached her and she attempted to walk away, authorities said. A verbal confrontation between McGriff and Holton turned physical as the officer attempted to arrest the woman, JSO said.
Police bodycam and cellphone video captured the incident
Videos showed the confrontation escalating as the officer tried to handcuff McGriff.
Police bodycam footage from the officer involved showed McGriff getting up and taking a swing at the officer.
Cellphone video from another angle showed the mother and the officer fighting and throwing punches at each other. That video also showed the officer throwing McGriff to the ground while attempting to arrest her. At one point, he put her in a headlock and she can be heard screaming that she can't breathe.
"All I was trying to do was get my daughter out of the school, from out of school, without getting wet, drenched in the rain. That's all and none of this. Everything that happened that was just like uncalled for and it's not fair," McGriff said.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump is representing the mom charged
McGriff, represented by civil rights attorney Ben Crump, alleged that the officer used unnecessary force during the arrest.
She claims the officer used chokeholds, grabbed her hair, punched her with closed fists and put a knee on her neck.
"The type of force used on Erika McGriff, the chokeholds, the hair grabbing, being punched with closed fists in the face, having a knee put on her neck, should be reserved for armed and dangerous criminals who are a threat to the public and our safety," Crump said as reported by CBS affiliate WJAX. "But not for mothers who are doing their part to go pick up their daughter from school so she won't get rained on."
For their part, JSO said McGriff violently resisted arrest, punched the officer, and bit him. She's been charged with battery on a law enforcement officer, resisting an officer with violence and operating a vehicle with a revoked license.
Crump has vowed to fight the charges in court.
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