Antioch police officer placed on leave after video shows him punching unhoused woman who bit him during arrest

By CBS Bay Area

Newly released video showing an Antioch police officer punching an unhoused woman during an arrest has sparked renewed questions about police use of force, prompting an independent investigation and the officer’s placement on paid administrative leave.

The incident happened July 1 at Waldie Plaza, where Antioch police were conducting a scheduled homeless encampment cleanup ahead of the city’s Fourth of July waterfront fireworks celebration.

Video recorded by witnesses shows a confrontation between officers and 41-year-old Ja’Marlette Hardy, who goes by “Frenchie.” During the struggle, two officers can be seen pulling on Hardy’s arms.

“And I’m like, why are you trying to break my wrist?” said Hardy in an interview Wednesday with CBS News Bay Area.

Hardy can then be seen biting one of the officers on the shoulder. Moments later, the officer punches her once in the face while attempting to restrain her.

Witnesses can be heard shouting after the punch. The officer responds, “She bit me!”

Police said Hardy repeatedly ignored commands to stay back from cleanup crews, confronted city workers and interfered with officers performing their duties. According to the department, officers moved in to arrest her after she refused repeated orders to comply. 

Police said the officer responded with a physical strike to stop the assault after she bit him. Hardy acknowledged biting the officer but said she did so only after she believed excessive force was being used against her.

“In the video, you could see him kind of, like, put his weight this way to get that arm behind my back,” Hardy said. “And as he did that, I felt my shoulder pop. So I bit him. Yes, I did. I’m not going to deny it, but how I feel about it is, self-defense. You’re a big man. I’m a little woman.”

Hardy said she was trying to help an elderly unhoused neighbor move belongings when the confrontation escalated. She also said she continues to suffer lingering effects from the incident.

“I keep having migraines. I cannot sleep at night. I’m tossing and turning,” Hardy said. “I’m having, like, I guess you could say, hallucinating.”

Others living at the encampment also criticized the officer’s actions.

“A girl bit you barely, barely. You couldn’t take it. So you decided you wanted to sock her like she was a man?” said Shalonda Hill, a friend in the encampment.

However, some said the officer’s response was justified. Former police officer and use-of-force instructor Don Cameron said officers are trained to immediately stop an assault.

“She bit him and … what’s saying, you know, now if I don’t stop her from biting that area, that she doesn’t go up and bite my face, or she doesn’t go down and bite my arm?” Cameron said.

Another one of Hardy’s friends in the encampment, Marz Shelby, said the encounter reflected a lack of compassion toward people experiencing homelessness.

“Come help the people. Don’t attack the people,” Shelby said. “Because right now, we’re literally living on the edge of the world. Like … nowhere else to go.”

Police Chief Joe Vigil said that “any use of force by our officers is taken seriously” and confirmed that the incident was being reviewed by an independent investigator. He said the officer involved has been placed on paid administrative leave, which the department described as standard protocol during the investigation.

The incident comes as the Antioch Police Department continues to face scrutiny following federal prosecutions of several former officers in recent years over excessive force and other crimes, as well as a multimillion-dollar wrongful death settlement involving another police use-of-force case.