An elderly woman with dementia has been awarded $3 million in compensation after being violently tackled by police officers in 2020, per Sky News.
Karen Garner's family filed a federal civil rights lawsuit after the grandma, then 73, suffered a broken arm and dislocated shoulder when she was attacked and arrested by former officers Austin Hopp and Daria Jalali over alleged shoplifting.
According to ABC News, bodycam footage of the arrest shows Hopp, 26, telling Garner: "Right now you're resisting, which is not going to fly with me."
Garner was then manhandled and forcibly taken to the ground, in an arrest that left her with "a dislocated shoulder, fractured arm and sprained wrist", according to her attorney, Sarah Schielke.
Garner, who in bodycam footage could be seen walking through a field with flowers in her hand as she was approached by the officers, had walked out of a Walmart in Loveland, Colorado without paying for a bottle of Pepsi, a t-shirt and some wipes, amounting to around $13.88.
The two cops have since resigned from the force and are facing criminal charges after CCTV footage showed them laughing and fist-bumping as they watched bodycam footage from the arrest.
During the arrest, bodycam footage showed Garner pinned to the ground and then held against the bonnet of a police car with her arm behind her back.
Other footage showed a confused Garner slumped in a police cell, confusedly telling officers: "I want to go home." According to the lawsuit, she was denied medical care for four hours despite complaining about her injuries.
Sky News reports that her family claimed that Garner's health and well-being has declined as a result of the incident and now requires "around-the-clock care".
According to CNN, they chose to settle the lawsuit after discovering an old letter written by Garner before her diagnosis, in which she said: "I feel the world is getting crueler. Don’t make it any rougher for yourself by living in the past. Look out the front window. Don’t dwell on what’s in the rearview mirror."
Loveland Police Chief Bob Ticer apologized for the incident on Wednesday, September 8, saying there was "no excuse, under any circumstances, for what happened to Ms Garner."
Earlier this year, Hopp was charged with second-degree assault causing serious bodily injury and attempt to influence a public servant, both felonies, per ABC News.
The charges were announced on May 19 by District Attorney Gordon McLaughlin. Hopp was also charged with official misconduct, a misdemeanor.
McLaughlin also revealed that fellow responding officer Jalali, 27, had been charged with three misdemeanors for failure to report use of force by a peace officer, failure to intervene, and first-degree official misconduct.
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