A video has emerged showing a lady firing multiple shots at a Tennessee officer in response to him tasing her before she fled the scene and died in an accident, consistent with the Tennessean.
The woman, who has been identified as Nika Holbert, 31, crashed into a bush and a ditch after she fled the scene in Nashville, Tennessee on Friday. She had been shot after the 2 exchanged gunfire.
Police bodycam footage shows Nashville officer Josh Baker approaching Holbert after a traffic stop, who is smoking and is on the phone during a parking zone that's seemingly empty, apart from the car she is going to soon get into.
The video begins with Holbert lighting a cigarette, as Baker says, “Here, do me a favor.” A glimpse of a pair of handcuffs is seen within the camera.
“No, no, don't put me in handcuffs. I have never done anything wrong,” Holbert says, inching back towards the car. She then grabs her bag that was resting on the trunk of the car and begins running around the car.
“Hey, get down, get down on the ground!” Baker says, running after her, while she repeatedly screams “no” and gets into the car.
“Get down on the ground!” Baker says as she’s holed abreast of the driver’s seat within the car.
He then begins tasing her, and she or he screams repeatedly, “Help me, help me!”
“Ma’s, step out,” he says, tasing her a couple of more times.
She leans toward her right and Baker then starts screaming, “Ma’m, put the gun down!”
She then begins shooting at him; the Daily Dot noted a minimum of five shots being fired.
As Baker lies on the bottom and involves help, Holbert gets back to the car and drives off, with its driver’s seat door still open.
According to the Tennessean, once she drove off, she crashed her car and died once she was taken to the hospital.
Baker initially approached Holbert after he identified her car as belonging to at least one Demond M. Buchanan, who is tied to 6 outstanding warrants on drug-related charges. Holbert wasn’t authorized to drive the vehicle, consistent with police spokesperson Don Aaron.
Baker then identified marijuana and white powder in possession of Holbert and asked her handy over the bag to him.
The person on the phone with Holbert was her mother, consistent with the Tennessean.
The incident is being investigated by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Metro Nashville Community Oversight.
Baker was in stable condition as of Friday evening.
On the Twitter thread where the video was posted, people shared different opinions on the incident:
"Come on people, U know we will not defend this," wrote one user. "Driving a known drug dealer's car, in possession of medicine, running after being caught denying U did anything wrong! The shooting was justified & the tasering wouldn't have happened had she admitted she was caught. we will not keep doing this."
"He used a taser on her first. That was poor judgment. He escalated things," wrote another user.
"Frankly my take is that any cop that has got to use extreme force during a situation like this should not be a cop," wrote one user, defending the lady. "He had numerous other options. Cops that resort to attacking a so-called suspect prematurely are unintelligent cowards. Their job is to de-escalate."
MORE| Grammys 2021: 10 Takeaways From A Big, Weird Night
0 Comments