Kansas City Officer Under Fire For Kneeling On Pregnant Black Woman

The Kansas City Police Department is under fire over a video that captured one of their officers kneeling on a pregnant black woman’s back.

On September 30, around 11 PM, authorities responded to a call from a security guard who reported there were “15-20 individuals fighting on the business’s property” located at 35th Street and Prospect. Surveillance cameras obtained by the police showed a group of people outside the gas station. Some were seen pushing each other, CNN reports.

Responding officers reported that one of the men involved physically interfered with the officers’ investigation and refused to leave the property. When officers attempted to apprehend the man, the crowd helped to defend him. According to KCPD, a man and a woman tried to pull the suspect away, when another officer intervened and apprehended the woman.

That was 25-year-old Deja Stallings, who was nine months pregnant at the time of the incident. As the officer arrested her for hindering and interfering, he was recorded by Chanel Le’Yoshe. The footage showed Stallings lying face down on the ground as officers detained her.

An officer said he tried to arrest Stallings standing up, but she continued to physically resist arrest, at which point he placed her on the ground.

Many are outraged over the aggressiveness of the officer’s approach, which was to press his knee into her lower back prior to her rolling over. However, the officer has defended himself, saying he made sure not to apply pressure with his legs.

Now protesters have joined at the city hall, demanding that Police Chief Richard Smith resigns from his post. They also want to see 50% of the department’s budget go towards social service groups that help the Black community. However, a spokesperson for the KCPD says Smith has no intention of resigning, and the department has refused to release names of responding officers.

“The question is only why this officer body-slammed a pregnant woman and put his knee and her back,” Stallings’ attorney, Stacy Shaw, told CNN. “What they’re saying is because they asked her to leave because she was pulling this away from an officer that that somehow justifies a white, large officer, body slamming 120-some pound, nine-month pregnant woman, twisting her arm above her head and kneeling in her back.”

According to Shaw, the baby is unharmed, and Stalling’s received treatment for nerve tissues related to the incident.