A South Carolina police officer knew she stopped the wrong vehicle but still decided to pull a gun on a black high school student and treat her like a car thief, video shows

Seconds after stopping a suspected stolen vehicle in early May, North Myrtle Beach Police Officer Kayla Wallace knew it wasn’t the Dodge Charger they were searching for because not only did it have the wrong color but it also had a different license plate number.

“This isn’t it,” a South Carolina police officer told herself as she stepped out of her patrol car, body camera footage shows.

Meanwhile, one other North Myrtle Beach police officer, Mike Pacileo, pulled his patrol car in front of the suspect vehicle and got out of the car, threatening the driver with a gun.

But as a substitute of telling Pacileo that that they had stopped the wrong car, Wallace went together with the charade, pulling out her own gun and ordering the driver to “show me your hands,” forcing an 18-year-old black woman named La’Nisha Hemingway out of the car at gunpoint.

“Walk backwards until you hear my voice,” Wallace ordered in an agitated tone. “Stop, kneel, stay there, put your hands behind your back.”

Hemingway, who was on her way to the beach to meet friends to have a good time her upcoming graduation from North Myrtle Beach High School, was shocked, scared and indignant.

“What the hell!” – Hemingway said, kneeling. “Can I call my mom?”

Meanwhile, Pacileo, who had pulled into oncoming traffic to stop Hemingway’s car, was searching her car as if she was still unaware it was the wrong vehicle.

“I’m confused,” Hemingway said.

“It has come to our attention that your car has been stolen,” Wallace replied, although she knew it was the wrong car.

Surprised by the accusation, Hemingway told the cops to check her registration and prove it wasn’t stolen, but the cops didn’t care.

“Your car was reported stolen, dude,” Pacileo said with cocky confidence.

“Brother, let me call my mother,” Hemingway said. “Haven’t you read the tags? No, you haven’t.”

Lawsuit

On June 17, Hemingway filed a federal lawsuit against the two officers, alleging false imprisonment, false arrest, excessive force, recklessness, and negligent training. Also on the defendants list is North Myrtle Beach Police Chief Dana Crowell, who last yr became the first female police chief in its 56-year history.

The incident occurred on May 3 at roughly 7 p.m. after police received a report of a stolen car described as a silver Dodge Challenger — a two-door car — with a South Carolina license plate that read VLP 678. Meanwhile, Hemingway was driving a dark gray Dodge Charger — a passenger car — with a South Carolina license plate that read VSW 736, according to the lawsuit obtained by Atlanta Black Star.

The two cops spotted Hemingway’s sedan from a distance and began accelerating toward it, flashing their lights to pull it over. Wallace told the dispatcher she was preparing to conduct a “high-risk stop.”

But about 30 seconds later, after reaching the Charger and pulling up behind it, Wallace knew it was the wrong car and told herself it was “the wrong one.”

But Pacileo was already shouting, “Hands up! Hands out the window!” so Wallace apparently felt compelled to join him in treating Hemingway like a suspected criminal.

“Let me call my mom!” Hemingway persevered. “And you all put these fucking handcuffs on me like I stole a car. And you then tell me to get down on my knees?

A little over a minute after Hemingway is handcuffed, Pacileo informs Wallace that they’ve stopped the wrong car, and Wallace acts as whether it is the first time she is receiving this news.

“Isn’t that it?” she said before she began to remove Hemingway’s handcuffs. “Here’s what happened…” Wallace tried to explain, but Hemingway would not listen to what she had to say.

“I don’t want to hear shit; let me go,” Hemingway said as she returned to the car and got into the driver’s seat.

“Get the fuck out of my way!” – she shouted to Pacileo, who began moving his car in front of hers.

Overtime

During a June 18 press conference, Hemingway’s attorney, Tyler Bailey, told local media that the officers never asked her for her driver’s license or registration, and even bothered to ask for her name. He said the officers didn’t even file an incident report for several days, which he said was a violation of the state’s Public Contact Report law, which requires all traffic stops to be documented, even in the event that they don’t lead to a ticket or arrest.

The law states that “each time a motor vehicle is stopped by a state or local law enforcement officer without issuing a citation or making an arrest, the officer who initiated the stop must complete a data collection form developed by the Department of Public Safety which must include information regarding age , gender and race or ethnic origin of the driver of the vehicle.”

Bailey suggested to local media that Hemingway would likely have been treated in another way if she had been white.

“If it had been someone else, I guess, who might have looked different, he might have shown a different respect,” he said WPDE-TV.

Hemingway’s uncle, Dr. Aaron Cox, told local media during a June 18 news conference that he has worked in law enforcement for over 34 years, including as a police officer in South Carolina, and “knows very well what needs to happen.”

“The police didn’t do anything right from the beginning,” Cox told WPDE-TV. “The people who should have been her defenders treated her as less than human.”