jaythegoat3476/TikTok
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A police officer from the Gwinnett County Police Department in Georgia was fired after a viral video on TikTok showed he used a Taser on an unarmed woman outside her mother’s home.
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Former officer Michael Oxford had been placed on desk duty following the Tuesday incident but was later fired, the Gwinnett County Police Department announced on Friday, citing inappropriate conduct in the field.
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“The investigation in this case has shown that Officer Oxford violated our policy and did not meet our core values,” the department said in a statement. “We strive to conduct ourselves in a manner that promotes mutual respect within the community and our peers.”
A police officer in Georgia was fired from the Gwinnett County Police Department after he was seen in a viral video tasing an unarmed Black woman outside her mother’s home on Tuesday.
According to WSB-TV, former police officer Michael Oxford was fired by the Gwinnett County Police Department for his conduct in the field. It was not the result of his use of force, the police department said, according to a report from WSB.
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“Gwinnett County police officers have a duty on conduct to interact with the public in a kind, considerate, and patient manner. Based on the video, we do not believe Officer Oxford displayed the conduct we expect from officers in Gwinnett County,” said Cpl. Collin Flynn of the Gwinnett County Police Department told WSB-TV.
The incident was the subject of a viral TikTok video, which has been viewed at least 20 million times. The video shows a struggle between Oxford and the woman standing on the front porch as he attempted to handcuff her. Then, Oxford can be seen pointing and firing his taser at the woman, before she fell to the ground in the bushes in front of the house.
“I’m not going nowhere, it doesn’t matter,” the woman, identified as 22-year-old Kyndesia Smith, told Oxford prior to being tased. “You’re on our property. We did not call you.”
“When he came up he said, ‘You all need to shut the f— up,'” Aytra Thomas, Smith’s mother, later told WSB-TV, adding that she did not believe the former officer’s use of the Taser was justified.
“I didn’t threaten him,” Thomas told the local news outlet. “She didn’t threaten him. She told him she didn’t want to talk. I didn’t want to talk. I didn’t have to talk.”
As the Atlanta Journal-Consitution reported, Oxford has been a police officer in the state since February 2019 and had no other disciplinary history. At the time of the incident, he was responding to the home at about 7:30 p.m. on Thursday in reference to a property damage call from a neighbor, according to a police report obtained by AJC.
“I then utilized (an) arm lock/leverage technique on Smith’s left arm in order to get the left arm behind her back to be handcuffed,” Oxford wrote in his report following the incident. Police said Smith continued to resist as he placed her inside his vehicle.
Smith was charged with felony obstruction and simple battery against a police officer and was released Wednesday after paying a $5,900 b0nd, according to AJC.
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