A lawsuit filed by a Black woman who claimed to be handled aggressively by Georgia sheriff’s deputies led the department to release body camera footage related to the arrest. The contents of the video are disturbing to say the least.
Jozzi Rainey filed a lawsuit in the spring against deputies from the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office regarding a June 2022 traffic stop. The lawsuit says Rainey was involved in a two-vehicle collision on Interstate 75 when Deputy Frederick Gray and Sgt. John Ahlvin responded to the incident.
The officers assumed Rainey was under the influence of alcohol, and moved to place her in handcuffs. The lawsuit claims that during the interaction, Rainey posed no physical threat and did not resist arrest but did have some sharp words for the officers.
The body camera footage, obtained by The Telegraph, shows things escalated during the arrest. Per the video, Rainey made racially charged remarks toward Deputy Gray, a Black man. When the officers went to place her into the patrol car she said, “For what? I didn’t do nothing.”
As Rainey continued to yell at the officers, Gray suddenly put his hand around Rainey’s throat. The suit says Gray began to choke her. When she tried to remove his hand, the video appears to show the deputy striking her and pulling her to the ground by her hair. When Rainey’s face appears in the frame again, her nose is leaking blood.
Rainey’s lawsuit said as a result of the incident, she suffered injuries to her face, nose, mouth and a chipped tooth. Mentally, the lawsuit says Rainey endured shock, humiliation, distress and trauma.
Sgt. Christopher Williams told The Telegraph that Deputy Gray was “well within his right to defend himself and perform his lawful duty,” and said Rainey was one the one who acted aggressively toward him.
The officers have since responded to the lawsuit, arguing that they are protected by qualified immunity as government employees, the report says.
“Simply stating that somebody has a propensity to engage in some conduct without alleging that the employer knows or should have known about this conduct is insufficient to state a negligent retention claim,” said an attorney for one of the officers, per the report.