Exclusive: Victim of Alleged Savannah Saint Patrick's Police Brutality Speaks Out
SAVANNAH, GA --
She claims Savannah Metro Police used excessive force after they used pepper spray, hit her repeatedly with a baton and threw her to ground.
It was all caught on video by an onlooker during Saint Patrick's Day last year.
A fight between several women; one of them says she was just trying to stop the fight. Instead she believes she was the victim of police brutality, and is now suing the city.
In a story you'll see only on News Three WSAV's Alice Massimi sat down with the young woman.
“That's when he came and attacked me again, pulled me over toward the car and slammed me to the ground,” says Patricia Shields.
Shields says it was the worst pain she has ever felt.
She says it started with a fight between her friend and women in a passing car.
“I went over to try and break it up.”
Sober and saying she was trying to stop the escalating situation Shields says she was instead the target of police brutality.
“The first he does is hit me with the baton, that's where I get the injury to my wrist and then he proceeds to hit me in the thigh where you can still see the indentations in my legs today.”
Injuries so severe she says a plastic surgeon blames permanent disfigurement to the officer hitting her so hard.
It continues in the video with the officer, Corporal Aaron McKie using pepper spray on Shields.
“I stumble away and that is when he comes and attacks me again, grabs me by the back of my pants and drags me over by the car, that's when he sweeps my legs out and takes me down head first.”
Shields maintains she'd never been in a fight before or in trouble with the law and she was terrified.
“I honestly didn't know what was going on because I have never seen a police officer act like that.”
“I never thought in my wildest dreams I was going to have to think about defending myself against a cop.”
Shields is suing the city because she believes the actions of corporal McKie were, in part, Savannah's responsibility.
“They failed to have a trained police officer out there to handle the amount of people and I feel it was there responsibility to have trained professionals out there.”
According to documents obtained by News Three from the Police Departments Internal Affairs Investigation McKie admitted his actions were "overboard"... even saying "the way she went down, that's the horrific part."
In regards to Shields' suit against the city -- while the city says they have no comment on the case, court documents state the city believes there was “probable cause to arrest Shields and “neither the City nor any individual SCMPD police officer acted with malice or an intent to injure Plaintiff.”