The incident happened Tuesday and, although there were seven arrests, very few details about what actually happened at Northwest Passage School have been released. According to police, who have only released a single sentence in regard to the incident, the school officer asked for assistance which set off the mass chaos.
"On May 8, 2018, officers responded to Northwest Passage School for an officer needs assistance call from a Hamilton County Deputy who was on duty in the school," the incident report reads.
Police responded to the call by sending 19 officers to the school which apparently transformed an incident with one student into a "mass arrest" incident.
On their Facebook page, Northwest Passage School explained that the incident began with a single student.
Today, at a NWLSD alternate placement school, Northwest Passage, a student became physically aggressive toward a school resource officer. As a result of the student's aggression, the student was tased by the resource officer and local police departments were notified and quickly arrived on site. The Northwest Passage staff's first course of action was to move other students away from the situation and try to calm the situation. In the meantime, the aggressive student was moved outside of the building and detained by police. The officers worked with the staff to calm down student witnesses.As the video shows, the scene was chaotic and the arrest of one student quickly turned into the arrests of multiple people.
The video shows police arresting three individuals with one of them on the ground. The woman filming remains quiet and did not appear to be interfering. However, she apparently got too close to at least one officer during the chaos who then attacked her.
"Ma'am, back up," says the officer. "Back up."
The woman then replies, "I can videotape," a statement which appeared to enrage the cop.
"You can, but back the f*ck up!" the cop yells as he begins attacking the woman.
The video appears to show the officer then start hitting the woman. "Stop hitting me!" the woman shouts as multiple blows can be heard on the recording.
The officer continues to swear and allegedly hit the woman until the video cuts out.
Another video shared with TFTP shows the altercation from a different angle and the cop appears to attack the young woman for filming.
The video was uploaded by Breasia Thomas who claims to be the woman who was attacked for filming. As the second video shows, Thomas does not appear to be interfering or preventing the officers from doing their jobs. She is merely standing there filming when the officer snaps and begins attacking her.
"He just put his hands on her, he just punched her in the face!" screams the woman who took the second video.
The officer then appears to try to take Thomas' phone as they move out of the view of the woman filming.
According to the police report, 19-year-old Breasia Thomas was arrested for resisting arrest and obstructing official business. A judge at the Hamilton County Courthouse set Thomas' bond at $2,500 on the obstruction charge and $5,000 on the resisting arrest charge. She has since bonded out.
According to Colerain police chief Mark Denny, the department has launched an investigation into the incident after these videos have surfaced. He also urged anyone else with video of the incident to call 513-321-COPS.
"While the demand for answers is understandable and necessary, the need for correct and verified information is equally important," Denney said.
Indeed, correct and verified information is important and according to the video, it appears that this officer assaulted an innocent woman for practicing her first amendment right to record police.
If you'd like to peacefully voice your concern over the assault and arrest of a woman for filming the police, you can do so at the department's Facebook page, here.
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