Fort Wayne PD releases in-car and body cam footage from traffic stop fight featured in viral video
By: The Fort Wayne Police Department released the videos connected with a traffic stop that ended in a physical fight between a Black woman and two white male police officers.
Twenty-nine-year-old Tyjana Smith was pulled over just after 3:30 a.m. Monday in the area of Abbott and Manford streets in the Pontiac Place neighborhood.
A bystander video of the incident went viral earlier in the week, showing two male officers fighting with Smith on the ground. One of the officers appears to punch her in the head while she is squirming around on the ground.
The primary responding officer was Mason Wills, recently named in the June fatal shooting of 22-year-old Linzell Pahrm during a traffic stop. In police body camera footage of that shooting, Parhm appears to be afraid, and is seen struggling to keep his hands on the dashboard in opposition to Wills' commands. He is reaching down, where an AK-style pistol is on the floor of the car.
Fort Wayne Mayor Sharon Tucker issued a statement along with the release of Monday’s footage, saying the decision to release the footage continues a commitment to transparency.
“An internal affairs investigation, along with an investigation by the Allen County Prosecutor’s Office, is ongoing into this matter. As we continue to investigate, the officers involved in the incident have had a duty reassignment,” the statement said.
In the video, Smith refuses to identify herself to officers and then refuses to get out of her car. When the two officers try to remove her, she fights. Wills throws her wig to the side and as they struggle, she slips on it and the three end up on the asphalt.
Wills is seen in his dashcam footage throwing a punch toward her head. In the bystander video, it appears to land on her face. In audio of both bodycams, he says she kicked him.
Smith is charged with felony charges of resisting law enforcement causing bodily injury, battery against a public safety official, and two misdemeanors charges including failure to identify and driving while suspended.
On Thursday, Smith appeared in Allen Superior Court on those charges, and also pleaded guilty to a similar charge of driving while suspended filed in January. She has been charged with this offense nearly half a dozen times in the past seven years.