Fort Worth Officer Fired After Body-cam Video Shows He Escalated Call Where Woman Who Sought Help Was Tased

Warning: The video contains obscenity.A veteran Fort Worth police officer was fired Monday after a review of an incident in which a woman who had called for help was shoved to the ground and had her hair pulled before she was Tased.Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald terminated Sgt. Kenneth Pierce, a 22-year veteran of the department, after supervisors conducting a mandatory use-of-force review of an August arrest uncovered the conduct, police said. Police released nearly 13 minutes of body-camera footage from a female officer who police described as a "rookie" and a written statement denouncing Pierce's actions. The video shows at least three officers responding to an apartment complex after the woman called 911 to report an incident with her boyfriend and said she would stab him. She tells the officer that she just wants her boyfriend to leave and said she has a knife to keep anyone from damaging her vehicle. The officers take her purse to search for the knife. The rookie officer asks the woman if she has any other weapons before returning her purse. The woman says she does not."It's no point in calling y'all if you're going to do all this," the woman says. "Come up here like ... I have done something to y'all."The woman, whose identity has not been released, pulls out her ID and becomes engaged in a conversation with another officer, thought to be Pierce, who asks what she told the dispatcher on the phone. "Look, I don't have to repeat myself," the woman says. "See this is the reason you're getting the attitude from us that you're getting," the officer says.Pierce asks her to hand the rookie officer her ID and the woman says she does not have to do so. He tells her to hand the officer the ID or she will be handcuffed and sent to jail.Within seconds, the woman is handcuffed and pulled to the ground. Pierce appears to be pulling her hair, and the woman is heard repeatedly asking him to "let my hair go."Pierce became "impatient, initiated an unnecessary physical confrontation," then ordered the rookie officer to tase the woman, Chief Fitzgerald said.  Continue reading...