Fairfield, Ohio, police and a local family are disagreeing on almost every point of an altercation last week that led to the arrest of two adults, Krystal and Maya Dixon, and two children, the Cincinnati Enquirer reports. The family is accusing the officers of using excessive force against its members, while the police are saying that it was a case of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest at the city pool.
In a news conference, Bishop Bobby Hilton, head of Word Deliverance Ministries, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer, slammed the police, saying that they were out of order to interfere with Krystal Dixon as she was trying to leave the pool with a group of children.
According to WLWT, Dixon had brought eight children to the pool last Tuesday, but one child was told to leave because he did not have the appropriate swim trunks. Dixon left to get trunks for the child, but when she returned she was told that the teenager would not be readmitted.
Dixon, Hilton said, went to gather the other kids to leave when an officer told her she had to leave. Dixon reportedly told the officer that she was just trying to get the children and go, moving past him. As she was leaving with the kids, the officer grabbed her arm and repeated that he had told her to leave.
"It was one minute and 45 seconds from the time the mother entered the facility until the time she was turning around, headed back to her car, and the officer stopped her," Hilton said, according to WLWT.
It was at that point that the kids started demanding that the officer let their mother go. However, Hilton maintains, they never attacked the officer in any manner. Hilton described to the news station a scuffle that allegedly ensued, in which an unidentified man attacked a 15-year-old, while another child, a 12-year-old, was roughed up by an officer.
The police, however, are describing a different story, according to WLWT.
"I think the videos, including their videos, tell a different story. It's clear to me in the videos they were noncompliant," Police Chief Mike Dickey said.
Dickey insisted that the officers were being attacked and pointed out that they didn't engage their weapons, using only their hands.
According to the Journal-News, Krystal Dixon, 33, "aggressively confronted pool staff" when asked to leave the pool because of the children's behavior. She allegedly pushed an officer, who reportedly asked her to leave again before finally arresting her. It was at that point that her sister, 34-year-old Maya Dixon, began to hit the officer, with some of the kids joining in.
"I think when anybody is attacking a police officer, whether it's a gun attack or a physical attack or a knife attack, these officers are obligated to defend themselves," the chief said, according to WLWT.
The news station also reports that authorities accused Krystal Dixon of telling one of the kids to get her stun gun. Hilton argued that she merely told the child to hold the weapon.
There is also disagreement over identification.
"Had she provided her identification, much the same as the thousands of arrests and citations are made around the country, it would have ended right there," Dickey said, according to WLWT.
Hilton disagreed, saying, "Had that officer not grabbed her at that point, this incident would not have happened. Can police learn to de-escalate instead of escalate situations? This angers me."
Hilton said that the 12-year-old suffered multiple injuries from being shoved against a police cruiser with her hands behind her back. The Enquirer reported that on Monday, Hilton wrote a Facebook post describing how the child received a broken jaw and broken ribs from the encounter.
The Enquirer notes, however, that there is currently no confirmation of those injuries. EMTs on the scene that day did not note any injuries sustained by the children other than the side effects from being pepper-sprayed.