North Carolina police officer dragged 66-year-old black woman from car and pinned her to wet concrete for parking violation, video shows

Marilyn Jean Fields, a 66-year-old black woman from North Carolina known in her community for her volunteer work, admits she broke the law when she parked in the hearth lane outside a Piggly Wiggly supermarket on a rainy day to buy a loaf of bread — together with several other cars that were also illegally parked that day.

But she said that doesn’t excuse a 22-year-old Kinston police officer named Karl “Blake” Davis, who dragged her from his car, slammed her against it, then placed her face down on the asphalt, sat on her and ordered her to “stop resisting.”

“I’m not resisting,” Fields may be heard saying in a video recorded by a witness because the officer rests his full body weight on her.

The incident occurred on July 18 at about 6:50 p.m. when Fields drove to a food market within the pouring rain to buy a loaf of bread and noticed other cars parked in the hearth lane, a typical occurrence in town, she said.

However, upon entering the shop, an worker used a bullhorn to inform customers to move their cars out of the hearth lane because Kinston police had already arrived and were issuing tickets.

Fields said she ran out of the shop without buying the bread to move her car, telling herself she would just buy it one other day.

When she got outside, she noticed a Kinston police officer issuing a ticket to one other driver, so she headed toward her car, hoping to drive away.

However, as she pulled out of the hearth lane and headed toward the parking lot exit, the identical police officer stopped in front of the car and signaled for her to stop.

He then demanded her driver’s license so he could issue her a ticket. Fields said the officer spoke to her in an aggressive tone, like she was a “dog,” and asked the officer if he spoke to all residents in an identical tone.

But before she knew it, he had pulled her out of the car, pressed her against the body, and laid her face down on the wet asphalt, pressing his knee against her back.

The witness began recording the altercation because the officer was on top of her, telling her to stop resisting and put her hands behind her back. But she said it was difficult for her to put one hand behind her back since it was underneath her body and he was leaning on her along with his full weight.

She was then taken to the police station, where an officer left her car within the parking lot with the engine running, the doors open and her purse lying on the passenger seat.

Community members who knew Fields contacted her family to allow them to know concerning the car, so that they went to the parking lot and secured the car, Fields told Atlanta Black Star in a phone interview.

Police statement

The Kinston Police Department said officers were initially called out to cope with a driver who had locked his keys in his car, but later noticed cars parked in the hearth lane and began issuing tickets.

The following statement was published on Facebook On July 19, describing his version of events:

Fields’ nephew, who goes by the Facebook name King Yari, said Kinston police have an extended history of racial profiling within the town of about 20,000 people, most of whom are black.

But despite the fact that the U.S. Census shows that Kinston is greater than 64 percent black and lower than 25 percent white, there are only a handful of black officers on the police department, her nephew said.

In 2019, Kinston police officers met with community members to discuss ways to address the systemic racism that has led to inequality between whites and blacks, according to TESTIMONIES.

In 2017, black residents of Kinston filed a lawsuit against town, alleging that town intended to demolish historic black homes while ignoring white homes as a part of a program to expropriate them.

The case was dismissed at lower levels before reaching the North Carolina Supreme Court, which ruled in July that the lower court had erred in its decision and subsequently reversed the case and remanded it for a brand new trial, meaning it would return to the appellate court so the justices can correct the error, according to Capital B News