YouTube A DeKalb County Police officer beat Katie McCrary with a baton inside of a gas station.
The DeKalb County Police Department said it’s investigating an incident where an officer used force while arresting a woman inside a gas station in early June.
The unidentified officer used a baton to gain control of Katie McCrary, 38, inside of a Chevron gas station on Glenwood Road in DeKalb County on June 4, a police report obtained by the Atlanta-Journal Constitution said. But the police department said it wasn’t aware of a video of the ordeal until it surfaced on social media July 10.
The video, which lasts 1 minute, 39 seconds, shows the officer beating McCrary with his baton as she lays on the gas station floor. A voice from the male recording the incident can be heard telling McCrary to “stop resisting” the officer.
McCrary continues to struggle with the officer on the ground as he continuously winds up and beats her with the baton. At one point, she grabs the baton and the officer orders her to let go, saying he would shoot her if she didn’t. Eventually, she puts her hands behind her back and is taken outside by the officer in handcuffs.
Watch a video of the incident below:
Once the video surfaced, the DeKalb Police Department responded to the footage. Spokeswoman Shiera Campbell said that officials at the police department weren’t aware that the video existed until over the weekend, adding that the incident was previously investigated.
“The incident was investigated by his supervisor, as well as Internal Affairs,” Campbell said in the statement. “The narrative in the officer’s report appears to be consistent with the video.
“Now that the department has this new evidence, we are looking to determine whether the incident is consistent with policy and the law.”
According to a police report of the incident, McCrary told the officer at the gas station that she was a federal agent and proceeded to give him a “random badge number’ as she walked past him and toward the building.
The report states that the officer warned her that she could potentially be charged with impersonating an officer, and she attempted to grab his badge off of his uniform. The chaos started after that, and the officer grabbed his baton and threatened to hit her with it if she didn’t comply. The officer stated that she didn’t obey his commands, so he proceeded to hit her with the baton “an unknown amount” of times in her left leg.
“I continued my baton strikes to her legs and forearms instructing her to stop resisting and to lay down with her hands behind her back,” the officer wrote in the report, obtained by the AJC. “One strike inadvertently struck the side of her head as she was moving around.”
After McCrary was taken to her car, paramedics responded to evaluate her medical condition and she was cited for criminal trespassing. She was sitting in jail July 10 after being arrested July 7 and being accused of prostitution.