Police laughed after violent arrest of 73-year-old with dementia: video

Colorado police laughed and joked after violently arresting a 73-year-old woman with dementia, according to a new video released Monday.

The hourlong video at the booking cell was released on Monday and shows three Loveland Police Department officers laughing and praising each other for the arrest.

Police threw the woman, identified as Karen Garner, who has dementia and weighs just 80 pounds, to the ground during her 2020 arrest in Colorado, resulting in the dislocation of her shoulder.

Officers Daria Jalali, Tyler Blackett and Austin Hopp, the one who put handcuffs on Garner, can be heard in the video laughing and calling Garner “senile” and “ancient.”

Hopp was “excited” he got to use hobble restraint for the first time during an arrest.

“Ready for the pop? Here comes the pop,” Hopp said, indicating the officers knew that Garner needed medical attention but didn’t provide any until hours after the arrest.

“The Loveland Police treated her like an animal. They laughed and fist-bumped while they were doing it. They reveled in her pain and did nothing to address it. They relished in stripping her of all dignity. We are physically sickened. We are angry. Our hearts could not possibly ache anymore,” Garner’s family said in a statement after seeing the video.

The video comes after Garner filed a lawsuit against the city and the three officers two weeks ago. An amended complaint was added to include more officers for failing to get Garner medical attention.

“This is utterly disgusting. These videos cannot be unseen or unheard. I am sorry to have to share them with the public. This will be traumatic and deeply upsetting for everyone to see,” Sarah Schielke, Garner’s lawyer, said in a statement. “But as it often goes with bad police departments, it seems this is the only way to make them change.

It is important to note that the laughing, jokes, and cavalier disregard of Ms. Garner’s mental and physical health shown by the Loveland Police Officers in this booking area video occurred at the height of the nationwide protests regarding police brutality and lack of accountability. This makes the video’s content even more damning,” Schielke added in a statement to The Hill.

“It shows that it was universally understood among the officers in Loveland that they would not be subjected to any such scrutiny. That their ability to abuse their power was, in their minds, untouchable.”

“The statements on the videos are very concerning,” 8th Judicial District Attorney Gordon McLaughlin (D) said, according to The Washington Post. “I will consider those statements along with all relevant evidence … in making a charging decision.”

McLaughlin is in charge of the criminal investigation into the officers’ actions.

Garner was arrested while she was picking wildflowers from the side of the road after Walmart employees called the cops on her for allegedly trying to leave the store without paying for her items, worth $13.88, and attempting to remove an employee’s mask.

“Our mother was forever changed by this event. Once fiercely independent,  happy, carefree and a great lover of the outdoors, she is now fearful, distrusting,  reclusive. Sad. Look at what they did to her. It is no wonder why,” Garner’s family said.

“I can’t believe I threw a 73-year-old on the ground,” Hopp says in the video.

The Hill has reached out to the police department for comment.

Updated at 4:00 p.m.