ATLANTA — Bodycam videos and surveillance footage from inside the North Fulton County Jail have been released in a choking incident as a woman under arrest was being processed earlier this month.
Alpharetta Police - whose officers were on scene, and whose bodycam videos have been released - announced Friday that its internal investigation wrapped up June 13 and concluded that its officers have been cleared of any wrongdoing.
"Our officers acted quite well, honestly," Alpharetta Police Chief John Robison said during the news conference. "Our officers knew she needed immediate care."
Robison said he would not comment further on the incident as Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat was also pursuing an investigation. A Fulton County Sheriff's Office detention officer, 31-year-old Officer Clark, has been arrested and charged with aggravated assault. Sheriff Pat Labat called the incident an "indefensible act" when announcing Clark's arrest.
The incident happened June 5 at the facility on Old Milton Parkway. According to the Alpharetta Police Department, the incident was witnessed by two of the department's officers who "immediately called for medical assistance and notified their supervisors."
The videos show a woman being processed at the jail, handcuffed. She is verbally aggressive during the processing, yelling expletives and insults at officers and at one point telling them, "Call my mom now, or I will f****** hurt you," and, "I will hurt you."
A few minutes into the processing, with the woman struggling against officers, an officer not identified in the video grabs the woman by the back of her neck with one hand to face her toward a camera.
"Do not -" she starts, with the officer then putting her into a choke, placing a second hand around the front of her neck.
"That's a chokehold, so I advise you to cooperate," the officer tells her. "Hold your face, before you lose your breath. The choice is yours."
The chokehold is held in place for about 11 seconds before the officer releases the woman and she collapses to the ground. It appears she loses consciousness briefly, before being roused back up.
The processing then continued with the woman being brought to a medical office. She is eventually taken to an ambulance and transported away from the facility. Robison said an Alpharetta police supervisor alerted him and the command staff about what happened.
"And then I immediately notify Sheriff Labat, and to his credit he acted quickly to contact his internal affairs team and get them started on investigating the matter," Robison said.
The internal affairs investigation by the Alpharetta Police Department cleared its own officers who were on the scene. Sheriff Labat, with the firing and arrest of Clark, said, "The indefensible acts of this one officer do not reflect the mission of the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office."
Clark had been with the sheriff's office since 2016. The charges against the officer also include violation of oath by a public officer.
“As Sheriff of Fulton County, I am committed to transparency and to holding each and every employee accountable to protect and serve every member of our community, including those in our custody," Labat previously said. "Being a detention officer is a difficult job but even under challenging circumstances there is absolutely no excuse for the behavior that led to this arrest.”
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