Black Woman Says She Was Fleeing For Her Life And Was Mistaken As A Criminal — Now She’s Suing Nashville Police - Page 2

Here’s what police body camera footage showed, according to Atlanta Black Star:

Metro Nashville police officer Holly Genualdi tracked Palmer down as she was walking on a sidewalk, looking at her phone. Genualdi ordered her to place her hands behind her back, telling her she was being detained “because you were close to the scene.”

“Are you kidding me?” Palmer responded. “ I don’t know him. This is so f–king embarrassing. What am I being detained for?”

“I didn’t do anything,” insisted Palmer, who had never been arrested before in her life. “He almost hit me.”

Palmer then began crying as Genualdi began escorting the handcuffed Black woman to her patrol car.

“Why are you arresting me?” she said through tears.

Metro Nashville police officer Charles Agius then walked up and began rummaging through Palmer’s purse, finding her legally owned handgun, which she carried for protection on her walks.

However, Palmer yelled from inside the patrol car that she did not consent to the cops searching her purse.

Eventually, all the officers agreed a mistake had been made and Palmer was released from custody, but not before Swoner arrived at the scene and offered her an explanation for her detainment that an objective person might call a blatant lie.

“The reason you were stopped is because everybody was telling us that you got out of the truck, too,” Swoner reportedly told Palmer.

Yeah — “everybody” didn’t tell him that.

Outside of the one witness, who later admitted he only saw Palmer running, not exiting the vehicle, every single person reviewing footage of the crash told Swoner unequivocally that Palmer was not involved in the wreck and that she had almost been struck herself. Swoner apparently made the decision not to relay that information to the officers detaining Palmer for no discernible reason whatsoever. 

Look, the whole ordeal only lasted roughly 12 minutes, and afterwards, officers drove Palmer home and returned her gun, but that doesn’t change the fact that she was wrongfully detained and handcuffed, that she was held well after the information that she was innocent had been made readily available, and that the commanding officer lied so casually while cop-splaining why she was detained.

“I used to love walking outside. I would go every day. I don’t walk outside anymore. I have to go to counseling, and I have PTSD,” Palmer told WTVF.

Palmer’s lawsuit names Swoner, who has since retired from the force, and officer Genualdi, and a third officer, Charles Agius, as defendants, accusing them of violating her Second and Fourth Amendment rights by illegally detaining and searching her and refusing to return her gun until after they had taken her home, as well as false arrest and racial discrimination.

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