A police department in Arizona released body cam footage of the arrest of a woman stopped for driving without a license.
She was then punched in the face and dragged on the asphalt after an officer accused her of resisting arrest.
The woman’s crime: asking why she was under arrest and driving with a suspicious passenger.
It turns out, her driver’s license was revoked.
Body cam footage from September 6 shows Goodyear police officer only identified M. Ross asking Renee Armenta if her name is Renee.
“Yes,” she replies before Ross orders her out of the car because she is under arrest.
But she doesn’t know why she’s under arrest and sits back into the seat of her car.
That’s when officer Ross grabs her by the wrists and drags her on the ground before forcing her into his patrol car.
A male passenger then exits the vehicle protesting Ross’s treatment of Armenta.
Ross pulls his gun and aims it at the passenger identified as John Moreno ordering him to drop to the ground.
Moreno complies.
Police back up arrive and Ross can be heard telling fellow officers he punched her because she put her hands behind her back as he tried to arrest her, which caused him fear.
In the video, Armenta continues asking why she was under arrest.
“I didn’t do anything, sir, why did you punch me?” she asks.
Ross can then be heard telling a group of officers he found Armenta’s passenger suspicious, which is why he ran her plates.
Moreno was arrested for drug paraphernalia, according to AzCentral.
Armenta was transported to the hospital for treatment.
“He punched me, he pulled me, he dragged me — I was just scared,” Armenta recalled after the incident.
“He pulled his gun. I was terrified. I was scared. I didn’t know what was going on.”
Armenta’s attorney, Anothony Ramirez, said during a September 11 press conference that he found the video disturbing and was considering the idea of filing a civil rights lawsuit for his client.
The Goodyear police department has not responded to repeated media requests regarding the officer’s full name.