Byram police use stun gun on woman in her front yard
A woman said Byram police used a stun gun on her during the course of an arrest in August.
Caitlyn Spane said she "had a reason for resisting arrest." She said she merged in front of the Kroger in Byram and shortly thereafter, the vehicle she had merged in front of turned on the blue lights. She said she used her signal before merging.
Spane said she pulled over and that the officer did not get out of the car, so she turned her blinker on and got back into traffic. She said he followed her a mile and a half to her house. When she pulled into her driveway, Spane said the officer approached her car and opened the door and tried to pull her out. She said he didn't identify himself or tell her why he had tried to pull her over.
"I just wanted to know why he grabbed me, he's in plain clothes and I was scared," Spane said. "You can arrest somebody without grabbing them like that."
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Spane's brother, Spencer Spane, got part of the incident on video. The short video shows two officers talking to Caitlyn Spane as she stands in the door of her car, while a third tells Spencer Spane to stay back in order to avoid being tased. At one point Spencer Spane asks why they are there, and one of the officers says, "because she was running from an officer."
The first officer tries to put a handcuff on Caitlyn Spane's wrist, and she sits back in the vehicle, at which point two officers pull her out and on to the ground. You can hear one officer saying, "step back," repeatedly, and the other officers saying, "stop resisting."
Caitlyn Spane can be heard saying, "No, I didn't do anything, I was just trying to go to my class."
The report from the incident, which took place at 5:19 p.m. on Aug. 23, states, "Ms. Spane was traveling west on Siwell Road at a high rate of speed while cutting off other motorists and not using her turn signal. Ms. Spane refused to yield to emergency lights and sirens and was later apprehended at her residence. While being arrested, Ms. Spane assaulted officers and refused to be handcuffed."
Byram Police Chief Luke Thompson confirmed the two uniformed officers drive marked Byram vehicles. The officer who initiated the stop is a command level officer that was wearing a dress down uniform and does drive an unmarked vehicle. His shirt has his name and rank and a badge embroidered on it.
"Imagine someone coming up on you so fast and grabbing on you, do you have time to read something like that? You don't even see a uniform, you just see a shirt," Spane said. "You don't have the time, you don't have the chance."
She added that she felt like the other two officers should have de-escalated the situation rather than tasing her in the chest.
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"He said in the affidavit that I was suspected of committing a crime, but what crime was I suspected of committing?" Spane said. "If I brought him to my home and I didn't take him on a three-mile car chase, it's not resisting arrest if you bring somebody home with your emergency lights on."
Spane, who is black, said she thought she may have been racially profiled. The officer who initiated the traffic stop is also black.
Thompson would not discuss the incident beyond what was in the incident report "to insure she gets a fair trial."
"Any video that only captures only a portion of an incident will not be flattering to anyone," Thompson said.
Thompson said his officers had body camera video, and that he stands behind them.
"Ms. Spane will have her day in court," he said.
Spane, who has retained an attorney, is charged with careless driving, resisting arrest, simple assault on a law enforcement officer and failure to yield to an emergency vehicle. Her court date is set for Dec. 14. Spane said she has not ruled out further action against the city.
Contact Therese Apel at tapel@gannett.com. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.