Philadelphia resident and 20-year-old Emily Weinman’s visit to the Jersey Shore over Memorial Day weekend ended in handcuffs after a violent encounter with a police officer.
A video of the violent arrest went instantly viral garnering more than 3.6 million views and has sparked a debate and investigation of the officers.
On Saturday, the City of Wildwood Police Department said that it has reassigned all of the officers involved, as well as launched an internal investigation of the video. The video opens with Weinman on the ground with one officer on top of her. After attempting to kick another and knocking over a beach chair, the first officer proceeds to hit her in the head two times with his fist then grabs her by the shoulders to pin her to the ground.
“An Internal Affairs Investigation was immediately initiated into this matter and the involved officers have been reassigned to administrative duty pending the outcome of a full and thorough investigation,” the City of Wildwood Police Department released on its Facebook page on Sunday.
There are two different sides of what exactly happened circulating around that led to the arrest.
According to the City of Wildwood Police Department post, Weinman was charged with two counts of aggravated assault on the officer, aggravated assault by spitting on the officer, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, obstruction, and being a minor in possession of alcohol.
The video of the arrest was shared on Twitter by a bystander, who wrote “I was sleeping on the beach and I woke up to this. I can’t believe it.”
I was sleeping on the beach and I woke up to this.. i can’t believe it.. pic.twitter.com/UJE5Sy7E4G
— Lexy (@HewittLexy) May 26, 2018
According to Slate, Weinman admitted on her Facebook page to having alcohol with her but denied that she was drinking it. The post has since been removed. In the post, she claims that the police approached her for suspicion of underage drinking, but that she then passed a breathalyzer test and was allowed to go.
She then as reported by CNN asked the arresting officers whether they didn’t have anything “better to do” than to police for underage drinking. Allegedly, this led to one of the officers answering, “I was gonna let you go but now I’ll write you up.” Weinman refused to give her name to the officer, and he threatened to arrest her. When she was walking away from the officer, she supposedly tripped and fell, and the officer proceeded to tackle her. In the video, the officer appears to be hitting Weinman in the head twice before wrapping his arm around her neck in a chokehold.
Weinman can be heard in the video telling the officer, “You’re not allowed to hit and choke me like that.”
Though, Mayor Ernie Troiano of Wildwood told The Philadelphia Inquirer a different story. “It wasn’t just that this officer decided to beat her up,” he said. “That wasn’t the case.” He claimed Weinman had spit on and “aggressively” attacked the police officer. Troiano said the police will soon release the body camera footage recorded during the incident that would show Weinman spitting and acting aggressive towards the officer.