Alecia Nelson was buying some snacks for her child’s third-grade class at the Family Dollar store in Richmond Monday when a cop walked in and began staring at her along with the store’s manager.
Nelson, 33, finished paying for her items and asked the men why they were staring at her.
Richmond police officer Graham Lang told her he needed to speak with her.
But Nelson told him she had nothing to say to him and attempted to walk past him with her items.
That was when the cop grabbed her from behind and body slammed her. Twice, according to witness Joshua Carter who recorded the incident and posted the video to YouTube where it has gone viral.
At one point, Nelson handed her purse to another woman but Lang followed the friend outside the store and snatched the purse from her. He then took it back into the store and started rummaging through it but did not find any stolen merchandise.
The cop also ɑѕѕɑᴜʟтᴇԀ Carter as he was recording who was verbally berating him for ɑттɑᴄᴋɪпɡ a woman who had broken no law.
Carter, in fact, used to work at that same store and was even on friendly terms with at least one of the detectives who responded to the scene.
Carter told local media that a customer had told the manager that Nelson had been shoplifting items so the manager called police without bothering to confirm the allegations.
Nelson who was paying for her items when the cop walked in was probably not aware that a customer had accused her of shoplifting (if the manager’s story is true).
And she knew she had not stolen anything, so she walked past the cop rather than allow herself to be profiled without just cause which is her Constitutional right.
But cops can’t stand when citizens do not bow down to their unlawful orders which explains the violent response from the cop.
The Richmond Police Department issued the following statement to NBC 12:
“Officer Lang arrived and was alerted by management that the larceny suspect was at the point of sale. Officer Lang attempted to conduct lawful detention of Ms. Nelson by giving verbal commands regarding the need to detain her for further investigation,” RPD said in a release.
“In response to her noncompliance and physical resistance, the officer used fᴏгᴄᴇ to gain compliance, and that force is presently being investigated to include video footage that precedes the video being circulated on social media at this time,” RPD said in a release.
Watch the shortened, edited video below or the unedited 13-minute video here.
