Video: Cop bodyslams knife-wielding elderly woman, nearly causing 'riot'

On the night of August 1, at a Whitehall, Ohio Walmart, Virginia Dodson could not remember why she was sitting alone in a car. Coming to grips with her enclosed environment, it donned on her that she did not know how to unbuckle her seat belt either. Panic began to take hold.

Her solution was to scrounge up a steak knife and cut through the straps, eventually finding her way into the confusing world of the parking lot. It was not long before the police were called.

Virginia, an 84-year-old African American, has Alzheimer's disease. Like many other sufferers, the responsibility for her care fell to her adult child. Her daughter, however, was inside the store.

It was only a short matter of time before the police were called.

As she wandered the parking lot calling her daughter's name, she was approached by a white, female officer who clearly ordered her to drop the weapon. She did not.

What happened next was captured on video and uploaded that same night to YouTube by user "mainetaine187," who says on camera as the scene escalates, "We gotta get real footage of this shit, haha!"

A witness to the scene, one Tomya Beatty, quoted by the local NBC affiliate station, said: "She didn’t even ask her to drop the knife. The woman told her when the cop came charging at her. She said, 'I’m not going to cut you. I’m not going to cut you.' She was just calling her daughter’s name out."

While the video contradicts Beatty's statement that the officer said nothing about the knife, the use of force against an obviously frail woman is apparent. As the video progresses, a noisy scene develops around the officers as the confused old woman lays on the ground, bleeding.

Beatty, again quoted by NBC, said, "There was about to be a riot in front of Walmart..."

Another alleged witness, YouTube user "MisssBoo76," wrote that the woman was "swinging a knife at people, when the police arrived she wouldn't drop the knife so the police officer took her down, the lady also assulted [sic] a kid by hitting him which sparked the crowd of people outside anyway..."

During the video, a male police officer can be heard shouting at the crowd: "We're not gonna hurt her! Step back!" Moments later, an unseen male asks, "What would you do if someone slammed your mother to the ground?"

The narrator adds: "Officer Fullerton of the Whitehall Police Department." He picked up a phone and called someone, then continued: "Yeah, I'm out here... sitting here watching these police beat up an 80-year-old old lady, man. Yeah, you know this is going on the news tonight, bro. I got the news footage."

"Dotson’s daughter said her mother needed stitches to close the wounds and her hand may have been broken," added NBC4i.

Police declined to press charges against the woman, who was released back into her daughter's custody.

"What's got me is that since it's obvious the female officer (proving that its not a gender-based issue) was strong enough to take her down with ease, why not just grab the knife from her instead?" asked San Francisco Chronicle blogger zennie62.

He continued: "To me, police officers are supposed to be trained to be super people in judgment not just strength. Yes, I know that what they do is dangerous, but the job doesn't have to be a thankless one. Somewhere along the way, deep in our long term backslide in education spending and the decline of leisure time we produced a society of people impatient to study a situation then react in a non-violent way."

The man responsible for this even becoming news, YouTube user mainetaine187, opines, "I think excessive force was used."

But, he concludes, "U be the judge....."

-- Stephen C. Webster

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