When Bottoms didn't immediately pull over, one of the officers making the traffic stop identified in the lawsuit as Salisbury Police Officer Devin Barkalow made statements recorded by his body camera that Bottom was a "f**king retard" and a "douche bag," according to the body camera footage.
Another officer involved in the traffic stop, only identified as Officer Smith, pulled ahead of Bottom and deployed spike strips that immediately immobilized her vehicle, the lawsuit says.
As Rowan County Sheriff's Deputy Mark Benfield and Barkalow approached her vehicle they had their guns drawn and pointed at her, according to the lawsuit. She was "terrified," according to the lawsuit, as officers shouted at her to exit the vehicle.
Within seconds of arriving at her driver's side door, the officers grabbed Bottom by her arm and hair and pulled her from her vehicle to the ground, according to body camera footage. The lawsuit names Benfield and Barkalow as the two officers who did this.
In the footage, Bottom is seen screaming as Benfield, Barkalow, and Salisbury Police Officer Adam Bouk force her to lay face down on the ground, according to the lawsuit.
Officers allegedly refused medical treatment
Bottom claims the officers refused to get her medical treatment even as she told them she was pain, according to the lawsuit. As she was handcuffed on the side of the road, the officers searched her vehicle and purse without her consent, a warrant, or probable cause which violated Bottom's Fourth Amendment rights, the lawsuit says.
After the search, officers told Bottom to stand, but she said she couldn't due to the pain in her shoulder, according to the suit. Officers Barkalow and Bouk picked up by her arms, inflicting additional pain to her shoulder, forced her to stand and put her in the back of a patrol car, according to the lawsuit.
During this time, Bouk is heard on the body camera footage saying, "That's good police work baby" to other officers, according to the suit. It also claims that the officers congratulated one other for their work and an officer identified in the lawsuit as Barkalow is heard bragging about grabbing a "handful of dreads," saying "at that point she earned it."
Eventually, Bottom received medical attention at the scene and was taken to the hospital, the lawsuit says. She later had surgery for the injury, but it did not fully repair the shoulder, according to the lawsuit, and now there is permanent damage.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/28/us/police-excessive-force-lawsuit-north-carolina-trnd/index.html
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