Mother calls Fort Worth police for help, gets arrested after ugly confrontation

A mother and two of her daughters were arrested Wednesday after confronting a Fort Worth police officer who had been called to investigate the reported assault of a 7-year-old boy, according to a video of the incident.

The mother, Jacqueline Craig, had called police Wednesday afternoon to report that a man had assaulted her son for littering, according to the woman’s relatives. Relatives said that a man in their southwest Fort Worth neighborhood had grabbed the boy by the neck in an attempt to get him to pick up the trash.

After a police officer arrived at the scene in the 7400 block of Rock Garden Trail the situation quickly escalated, with women screaming profanities at the officer, who eventually handcuffed and arrested Craig and two daughters, Brea Hymond, 19, and Jacques Craig, 15.

“He didn't have to do that, nobody deserves to be treated like that,” Jacques Craig told the Star-Telegram Thursday morning.

A video of the incident was posted on Facebook has been viewed more than 1.1 million times by noon Thursday.

The police officer is white and the women are black. The officer has not been identified.

Fort Worth police said that they were aware of the video and that “Internal Affairs is currently conducting an internal investigation. A formal statement from FWPD will be sent out .... later today.”

Police also sent out an “safety alert” after a threat related to the video was made on Facebook.

“On God I say we kill all the white cops in Fort Worth,” the man allegedly posted on Facebook while sharing the video. Police included a mugshot of the man and that he had previously been arrested for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated robbery, unlawfully carrying a weapon and family violence.

“Please use caution if you encounter this individual,” the alert states.

The video shows the officer talking to both the man who allegedly assaulted Craig’s son and then Craig. Craig can be heard telling the man that he should have alerted her if he believed her son had littered and that he didn’t have the right to put his hands on her son.

“Why don’t you teach your son not to litter?” the officer asks Craig.

“He can’t prove to me that my son littered,” Craig responded. “But it doesn’t matter if he did or didn’t, it doesn’t give him the right to put his hands on him.”

“Why not?” the officer responds.

The exchange immediately grows heated with Craig telling the officer that his question made her angry and the officer replying he would take her to jail if she continued yelling at him.

Craig and other women began shouting at the officer, which was captured on video being shot by Craig’s cousin, Porsha Craver. Women crowded around the officer can be heard screaming profanities at the officer and calling him a “pig,” before walking toward him.

A struggle between the officer and Craig ensued and Jacques Craig ran to stand in between the two, according to the video.

“I am 15 years old. How was I supposed to know I wasn't supposed to interfere?,” Jacques Craig said. “ I was just trying to protect my mom.”

The officer pulled his Taser and wrestled Craig to the ground and handcuffed her before pointing his Taser at Jacques Craig, who was laying on street. Jacques Craig was then handcuffed and placed inside a police vehicle. She said she was kicked while trying to get inside the vehicle.

“I didn't know how to sit in a police car, I've never done it before. I was just crying and worried and thinking about how to get out,” she said.

Jacques Craig said she was released from a juvenile detention center about midnight.

Craig, 46, was arrested for resisting arrest and also has outstanding traffic warrants, according to jail records.

Hymond, was arrested for resisting arrest and interfering with public duty, according to jail records.

Craig’s daughter was released early Thursday, said attorney Lee Merritt, who is representing the women.

Just before relatives were getting ready to call police, Craig said she saw that the man was already on the phone with them. He was saying there were a lot of “them here now,” Craig said.

While many of the nation’s largest cities have been the focus of Black Lives Matter protests in recent months, mostly because of controversial shootings of black men by police, Fort Worth has been mostly immune to racially charged incidents.

Police have been active in the community, and at a public forum in August, Joel Fitzgerald, Fort Worth’s first black police chief, talked about the importance of building relationships.

“We need to break through now to the next generation of kids out there so they understand we’re here to provide a service to them, “ Fitzgerald said.

This story was originally published December 22, 2016 at 10:49 AM with the headline "Mother calls Fort Worth police for help, gets arrested after ugly confrontation."