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Georgia officer suspended after dragging 65-year-old woman from car

May 12, 2018 01:54·
A 65-year-old Georgia woman was dragged from her vehicle at a traffic stop

A 65-year-old Georgia woman was dragged from her vehicle at a traffic stop

Police in Alpharetta, Georgia have opened an internal investigation after officers dragged a 65-year-old grandmother from her auto during a traffic stop.

Shocking dash cam footage of the May 5 incident shows Alpharetta Police Department cop Michael Swerdlove attempting to forcibly remove Rose Campbell from her vehicle after pulling her over for failure to maintain her lane, local station WSB-TV reported. The grandmother objected to signing the citation, however, saying she believed doing so would be an admission of guilt. Legg was one of the responding officers, who helped to pull her out of the vehicle.

Campbell told WSB that she doesnt think the officer who dragged her out should be fired, but that she wants better training for officers. She says she does not, and he explains that she swerved into the other lane when making a turn. She later told WSB-TV she felt "violated" by the officers. The officer was unable to subdue the driver and requested for backup officers to come to his location. One officer in particular; however, interjected himself into the situation using language and tactics that were inappropriate, even inflammatory. "I don't like the issue of firing people", she said.

A second officer, who has not been named, gets out of one of the cars and approaches Campbell, telling her: 'I need you to get out of the vehicle, step out.

Legg also said may be he shouldn't have used profanity, but "it's immediate effectiveness is not questionable" because he "ended a volatile situation quickly with very limited force and got everyone off the highway and back into service".

Legg has resigned, the department announced on Friday, adding that Georgia Bureau of Investigation will now be conducting its own investigation. Campbell asked the officer his name, and then he can be seen grabbing her. Campbell screamed.

Legg was suspended pending the department's internal affairs investigation, but made a decision to resign on Friday saying that he felt he had acted appropriately and reasonably. "As you'll see, this was a complicated issue due to the age of the driver as the officer did not want to hurt her", the department wrote in a statement.

Alpharetta police said the woman became so upset that she struck the officer with the door of her vehicle. "Unless you're wrong, you're going ask why". Am I in a movie?

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"I feel I acted appropriately and the way that I was trained when I arrested Ms. Campbell", he writes. I couldn't believe it.

'I didn't expect that in America. "It was surreal", she told Petchenik.

The video was released by Alpharetta Public Safety, an agency in Alpharetta, Georgia.

"We strive to be a transparent department".

The officer involved in the incident has been identified as James Legg and he has since submitted his resignation to the City of Alpharetta, the city said in a statement.

"I didn't expect that especially in Alpharetta", she added. "There are aspects of the video ... that simply do not represent who we are as an organization".

"I remind you that I did not make the traffic stop, did not begin the use of force, did respond with emergency equipment, did properly analyze the situation, did render the vehicle safe, did get the suspects attention and out of the auto, did effectively get her detached from the seat belt, and did get her handcuffed with limited force".

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