New Video Shows White Houston Policeman Arrest Black Woman After She Calls 911 On Him

By Sameer Rao Aug 05, 2016

The lawyer of a Black Houston woman charged with resisting arrest released surveillance video on Wednesday (August 3) that he and his client say shows the officer provoked the arrest after she called 911 on him. 

"I would like another officer to come out here," says Earledreka White in the video, which her attorney released to The Houston Chronicle. "My heart is racing. I’m really afraid."

The surveillance video, posted above, shows a still-unidentified Houston Metro Police Department officer standing and listening White speak with the 911 dispatcher after a traffic stop. He occasionally speaks, although the exact content of his remarks is indecipherable over the 911 call’s audio. At about the 2:50 mark, the officer pulls out handcuffs and tries to grab White’s phone from her. She attempts to walk away before the officer grabs her hand and pushes her towards her car. Her car door open, he grabs and pushes her towards the car while a distraught White keeps talking to the dispatcher. At one point during the arrest, White mentions that the officer tried to use a Taser on her. 

"Being pulled over is not the troubling part – what happened after being pulled over is what baffles me," said White to the Chronicle. "As I tell the dispatcher that this man is threatening to ‘tase’ me, he backs away, then comes back and literally tries to break my arm." White spent two days in jail for resisiting arrest, and she and her lawyer Zack Fertitta are trying to fight the charge. 

Metropolitan Transit Authority officials told the Chronicle that they reviewed White’s complaint in April, including surveillance video, and found no evidence of wrongdoing. "She was uncooperative but he did everything reasonable within the law," said Metro Police Chief Vera Bumpers. "He explained what was going on, what the violation was and that he was focused on her safety, as well as his."

The Harris County District Attorney’s Office is reviewing the charge against White, which she and Fertita say should be dismissed because the officer instigated the altercation.