Teen girl beaten, tased by White male cop at mall for riding her bike

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On May 24, 2014, Monique Tillman, 15, and her brother were riding their bikes when they were stopped by Tacoma Police officer Jared Williams. They were traveling home and used the Tacoma Mall parking lot as a shortcut. Williams was off-duty, working as mall security. 


Williams accosted and assaulted the young teen when she tried to escape him after explaining to him that cutting through the mall parking lot is not uncommon. He was caught on camera snatching Tillman off her bicycle, slamming her against a parked car and choking her. He then, gripping her hair, tossed her around as she tried to catch her breath. You won’t believe what happened next. He pulled out his taser and administered 50,000 volts of electricity, which is powerful enough to immobilize a person and causes involuntary muscle contractions and impairment of motor skills.

Williams then arrested Monique who was face down, tasered, handcuffed and brutalized, and charged her with resisting arrest and assault on an officer.


“He was choking me, grabbed me by my hair and tried to slam my face into the concrete. The next thing I know, I’m on the ground being tased,” Tillman said.

After viewing the surveillance video of the incident, however, all of the charges were thrown out.

According to The Free Thought Project, Vito de la CruzTillman’s attorney, has filed a lawsuit seeking damages from Officer Williams, the Simon Property Group who owns the Tacoma Mall and Universal Protection Services, the private security company in charge of Tacoma Mall security.

“A child riding a bike should not have to worry that a police officer will stop her without legal cause and brutalize her,” said de la Cruz. “Our communities are weary of another African American child being hurt by unwarranted and excessive police force.”

Now 17, she tells Seattle Times, “I feel like I was targeted because I am a person of color,” she said. “It was frustrating because I knew I didn’t do anything wrong, but I couldn’t stop them.”

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