Surveillance cameras captured the moment a police officer brutally punched a woman in the face outside her home in Brazil.
Video of the October 21 incident, obtained by EPTV on Monday, showed three members of the São Paulo Military Police surrounding the woman on the street.
The police officer in question stepped back and hit the victim, whose name has not been released, as he fell toward the sidewalk.
The attacking officer then took out his handcuffs to restrain the woman with the help of another police officer.
The three officers were removed from the patrol, the São Paulo Military Police said in a statement.
“The Military Police does not tolerate misconduct by its officers and is investigating the case through a Military Police Investigation,” the police department said.
‘The officers who participated in the incident were identified and removed from their positions. Each and every excess committed by officials will be punished in accordance with the law.’
The woman told EPTV that officers were responding to a domestic dispute after the woman’s daughter called to report they were arguing.
Three members of the São Paulo Military Police were removed from patrol duties Monday hours after video emerged of an Oct. 21 incident in which one of them punched a woman in the face while questioning her about a domestic dispute involving his daughter.
The woman suffered a bruise on her eye after a member of the São Paulo Military Police hit her while trying to arrest her in front of her home in October.
‘The policeman was aggressive with me from the beginning. “He said that if I didn’t stay quiet he would break my face,” the woman recalled.
‘He arrested me and I asked him why. He said, “Keep quiet or I’ll break your face.”
The woman said she began raising her voice to get the neighbors’ attention because she was afraid of the officer’s behavior.
‘I fainted immediately, I couldn’t see or hear. I fell to the ground unconscious. My neighbors asked them to call (the emergency services) to help me, but they wouldn’t let me, they put me in the police car and took me to the emergency room.’
The woman said she did not receive immediate medical attention until a nurse alerted a doctor, who ordered X-rays of her head.
They then took her to the police station and told the officer who hit her that she was not going to report the incident because she was afraid.
The officer responded that she was free to file a report with the internal affairs department, but told her he knew where she lived.
A report filed by the arresting officers alleged that the woman refused to go with them to the police station and said that “the police were shit and trash.”
The woman was seen arguing with police officers in São Paulo, Brazil, on October 21, after they responded to a call from her daughter about an argument they had had.
Footage shows police arresting the woman moments after one of them punched her in the face. All three officers have been removed from patrol duties.
Additionally, the police stated that she “attempted to hit the police officer in the face, who responded with a forceful blow, using moderate force, to restrain her resistance and handcuff her.”
The woman denied her accusations.
“I would never, ever do something like that,” he said. ‘At no time did I curse them or attack them, I never laid a hand on them and I never said anything, nothing, I didn’t curse.’
The assault, she said, traumatized her and prevented her from leading a normal life.
‘Emotionally, I’m exhausted. I can’t sleep, I don’t feel like eating or doing anything. “It has destroyed me psychologically,” he said.
“Physically, I still have pain in my mouth, I have a scar on my face and I have pain in my head… I’m destroyed.”