UPDATE: Officer Violently Slams Woman To Ground For ‘Arguing’

A few days ago, we posted an article detailing how a woman was violently slammed to the ground for merely arguing with a police officer. That woman, Liz Vargas, has released more information surrounding her encounter with the violent cop.

The incident that started over a tinted license plate cover, and resulted in Vargas being left bloody, bruised, and arrested, is now being investigated by the Tampa Police Department. Within 34 seconds of approaching Vargas, Officer Kevin Fitzpatrick had body-slammed her to the ground, as she screamed for nearby citizens to help.

The very next day, Vargas requested a copy of the officer’s dash-cam video. She was told that no video existed. It wasn’t until five months later that news of the video’s existence surfaced. It wasn’t the police that fessed up to owning it, but rather, it was a private investigator that discovered it still existed despite claims by police.

The State Attorney’s office is ‘investigating’ why the police lied about the existence of the dash-cam video.

Even more concerning is why the officer intentionally turned off his microphone. According to Tampa Police Department policies, an officer is only allowed to deactivate the microphone if he or she is in a ‘non-enforcement’ situation (such as traffic control). Performing a traffic stop would be considered an ‘enforcement situation’ and shows the officer intentionally violated department policy.

But that’s not the end of the police department’s illegal tactics. It seems that the police department offered to drop the obstruction and resisting charges against Vargas if she would drop the Internal Affairs complaint. Luckily, she refused and the charges were dropped anyway.

Feel free to comment on Tampa PD’s Facebook page or on Officer Fitzpatrick’s personal Facebook page.