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A Black woman is suing the city of Akron and its police department after she was body slammed by an officer while being detained, per Fox 8.
The lawsuit filed by Dierra Fields stems from her January 2024 encounter with Akron police.
On January 11, 2024, officers responded to a call regarding a family argument. As officers were separating family members, Fields said she tried to de-escalate the situation and asked to wait outside with her children.
Instead of allowing Fields to be with her children, one of the officers “grabbed [Fields], lifted her into the air, and body-slammed her headfirst into the ground,” the lawsuit reads.
An internal review found the officer's use of force was justified. However, an auditor for the city's police review board recommended that the officer should face discipline.
Fields was charged with resisting arrest, but a jury acquitted her in June.
Imokhai Okolo, Field's attorney, released the following statement addressing her lawsuit.
"It’s time for accountability. For the past year, Dierra and her family have had to struggle with the harm inflicted upon her by [the officer named in the lawsuit]. And since then, [the officers involved] … have faced zero consequences for their actions. Chief Harding and Mayor Malik have justified and condoned their treatment of Dierra, and have given members of the Akron Police Department the green light to continue terrorizing our community and inflicting gratuitous violence on whomever their choose. That’s unacceptable. This is not what we want as a community and we deserve better. So…. For now, we’ll see them in court…"
The lawsuit alleges excessive force, negligence, assault and battery, and more.
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