TACOMA, Wash. —
A Western Washington law firm released video Tuesday showing an officer pulling a 15-year-old girl off her bike in a mall parking lot.
The firm, which announced a suit Tuesday, said Monique Tillman, 15, and her brother Eric were riding their bikes home after eating dinner in the Tacoma Mall area.
They took a shortcut across the Tacoma Mall parking lot on May 24, 2014.
The law firm claims that the siblings were singled out by mall security and stopped by a Tacoma police officer.
The officer, dressed in a Tacoma Police Department uniform and gear, was reportedly off-duty at the time but working at a security guard, according to the lawsuit.
A spokesperson for the Tacoma Police Department tells KIRO 7 the department has no comment about the video nor the lawsuit.
Here’s what the law firm wrote to KIRO 7 News in a release about the incident:
“Officer Williams informed them that they were causing a disturbance and were about to be “trespassed” from the Mall. Again, Monique demanded to know why she and her brother were being stopped and questioned by police. She tried to tell Officer Williams that she and her brother were on their way home. Officer Williams didn’t listen,” the law firm wrote in a release.
That is when the officer allegedly pulled Monique off her bike. The video shows Monique struggling as she was pushed into a car and then onto the ground.
The officer reportedly used a stun gun on her, and then put her in handcuffs, according to the law firm.
The lawsuit seeks damages from Officer Williams, the Simon Property Group, which owns the Tacoma Mall and Universal Protection Services, the private security company in charge of Tacoma Mall security.
To see the article and watch Monique Tillman’s interview, click here.