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The newly released video is from the day of the incident and depicts officers in the booking area as they laughed about the arrest and Garner sat handcuffed to a bench in a nearby cell, The Denver Post reported. In it, Hopp continues to gloat about the incident and can be heard saying, “I can’t believe I threw a 73-year-old on the ground.” Multiple officers can be seen watching the footage. One officer says, “I hate this,” and Hopp replies, “This is great,” and “I love this.” Another officer refers to body-cam footage as “live TV” and their “favorite thing to watch.”
“To hear that tone in someone’s voice, to get that tone in your head, it just stirs you to more anger,” Garner’s daughter-in-law Shannon Steward told The Denver Post of the video. The family was disgusted at the officers’ actions. As a result of the arrest, they shared, Garner was not only put in the hospital but barely communicates now. She is currently living in an assisted living facility because the family no longer believes she is safe living alone.
“She hasn’t come back the way she was before,” Steward said. “It was too much.” Speaking publicly for the first time, the family shared that Garner has still not been able to tell them what happened on the day of her arrest. When asked about it, she only repeatedly says: “Why did they hurt me?”
Prior to her arrest last year, the grandmother of nine lived alone. She was approached by officers on June 26, 2020, after Walmart employees called the police to report that she walked out of the store with $13 worth of merchandise, The New York Times reported. Because she has dementia, Garner’s family believes that she forgot to pay for the items and had no intention to shoplift.
The family filed a lawsuit that garnered national attention after the body camera footage was released on April 14. According to the footage of the incident, Hopp found Garner walking home and took her down to the ground within 30 seconds of contacting her. But he didn’t just arrest her in process of handcuffing her and taking her down: Hopp dislocated her shoulder, fractured her arm, and sprained her wrist. According to the lawsuit, Garner repeatedly cried in pain, to which officers responded, “Are you finished?” Throughout the incident Garner repeated, “I’m going home” at least 38 times, the lawsuit says. Despite her injuries and bruises, she was not taken to a hospital for at least six hours.
“Her voice doesn’t leave your head,” Alissa Swartz, Garner’s daughter said. “You just hear her saying, ‘I’m just going home, I’m just going home.’”
According to reports, the family did not know she had been arrested until a nurse at the hospital called them at 11:30 PM. “I just feel like I didn’t protect her,” Swartz said. “I wasn’t there to keep her safe from the police, who are supposed to protect her.”
Following the incident, the Loveland Police Department placed Hopp on administrative leave and reassigned the second officer, identified as Daria Jalali, to administrative duties pending investigations.
While the Eighth Judicial District Attorney announced last week he will investigate whether the officers broke any criminal laws, Garner’s family doesn’t understand what is left to investigate. With clear footage of the incident and how officers treated Garner, they believe the officers should be fired and charged with a crime.
“There are great police officers out there and there always will be,” Swartz said. “It’s the ones that do not do their job correctly. They want to feel that power.”
According to the Loveland Reporter-Herald, department officials said that they did not know officers injured Garner until the lawsuit was filed. However, both the officers on scene and the responding sergeant acknowledged they knew.
The police department has yet to comment on the new video.
After releasing it on YouTube, Garner’s attorney Sarah Schielke called it “utterly disgusting,” and added that such “videos cannot be unseen or unheard.”
“I am sorry to have to share them with the public. This will be traumatic and deeply upsetting for everyone to see,” Schielke continued. “But as it often goes with bad police departments, it seems this is the only way to make them change,” the attorney went on. “They have to be exposed. If I didn’t release this, the Loveland Police’s toxic culture of arrogance and entitlement, along with their horrific abuse of the vulnerable and powerless, would carry on, business as usual.”
The incident sheds light on the ongoing use of excessive force and police brutality this country is plagued with. Accountability is needed now more than ever to hold officials who are meant to keep us safe responsible. Garner’s experience is heartbreaking and no one should be treated the way she was—especially for forgetting to pay $13.88 in groceries or for having a mental illness.
“They could’ve walked her home,” Steward said.
(WARNING: The video below contains violent video, photos, and language that may not be suitable for all readers.)
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