A University of Texas at San
Antonio college student has reportedly pressed charges against a local law
enforcement officer after she was arrested while recording a police speed trap
with her cell phone.
Abie Kyle Ikhinmwin, 25, was
standing with her bicycle in front of a bus stop last week when she started to
record footage of a marked police car pulling over suspected speeders on an
adjacent road. When all was said and done, though, she was one of the
unfortunate ones who ended up with a traffic citation — as well as a ride in
the back of a cop cruiser.
As evident in the videos
Ikhinmwin uploaded to her YouTube page, at one point while recording the clips
she was approached by a San Antonio Police Department officer and asked to move
her bike away from traffic.
“What’s the traffic violation?
I’m 12 inches from the curb. Am I not 12 inches within the curb?” she asked on
camera.
When Ikhinmwin refused to
relocate her two-wheeler, the officer asked for identification. After refusing
to comply with that order, the cop handcuffed the woman and hauled her in.
“You can’t just arrest me for
sitting at a bus stop,” the college student is heard telling the cop on camera.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” the
police officer responds. “M’aam, you’re going to go to jail, that’s what's
going to happen. You’re already going to jail.”
According to local news network
KENS 5, “she was eventually dragged by her hair into a squad car, but not
before suffering bruises that would keep her out of school for a week.”
Ikhinmwin spoke with the
station afterward and said of the incident: “I’ve never been so dehumanized in
my life.”
“Her bike was confiscated,
along with her school books and computer,” KENS 5 reported. On top of that,
though, she also received one citation for failing to obey an officer and
another for impeding traffic. With regards to the arrest, though, she says that
was the result of being charged with failure to provide identification to a
police officer.
Ikhinmwin, a criminal justice
major at the local college, is pressing charges against the officer, KENS 5
reported.
According to the authorities,
however, the arresting officer was never in the wrong.
"I think there was
somebody there that certainly seemed to be failing to obey the police officer's
orders," SAPD Sgt. Javier Salazar told the station after being asked for
comment.
On her personal Facebook page,
Ikhinmwin wrote, “If I were looking for fame it wouldn't be from an officer
beating me up.”
KENS 5 reporter Joe Conger
claims Ikhinmwin told her that officers took four hours to come up with the
failing to produce identification charge after she was apprehended. The SAPD
confirmed to Conger that they are investigating the ordeal.