Myrtle Beach release bodycam after a high school graduated was detained during a traffic stop
By: A North Myrtle Beach High School graduate filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city and three police officers after she said she was wrongfully detained.
La'Nisha Hemingway, 18, was driving to meet friends on May 3 when North Myrtle Beach Police Dept. (NMBPD) officers pulled her over, removed her from her car, and "forced her to walk backwards at gunpoint and then handcuffed her," according to a release from Bailey Law Firm.
The law firm's release claimed that after they placed her in handcuffs, officers acknowledged they stopped the wrong vehicle.
In the bodycam footage, the officer making the traffic stop can be heard saying "That's not it" before pointing a gun toward Hemingway's vehicle.
Hemingway, her family and their attorney Tyler Bailey appeared for a press conference Tuesday morning at North Myrtle Beach City Hall.
Bailey summarized the incident and said the officers never asked for Hemingway's license or registration during the traffic stop, and after they let her go, they never asked for her name. They also claimed that a report was not made for the arrest until several days after it happened.
He also said Hemingway's father was killed due to gun violence, which has added to the trauma of the events on May 3.
Hemingway's uncle, Dr. Aaron Cox, told the media he has been in law enforcement for more than 34 years, including as a South Carolina trooper, and is "very familiar with what should have happened."
Cox said he had mixed emotions when he heard the news of his niece's arrest.
I was thinking, thank God that she is alive and is okay. But then the more I learned and the more I reflected on it and thought about it, I got angry," he said.
Hemingway's grandmother, Janet Hemingway, said "She is not the same" since the arrest, and emphasized their want for justice from the department and officers involved.