Ebony Washington, a pregnant Florida mom, was handcuffed at gunpoint by a sheriff’s deputy during a traffic stop while her three children watched.
The body cam video was released over the weekend, and Deputy Jacob Desue promptly resigned.
Deputy Desue is seen in the body cam video, weapon drawn, telling Ebony “…you make any movement that’ll be your last mistake you’re gonna make.”
As he approached her with his gun drawn and placed handcuffs on her, he asked, “You don’t know how a traffic stop works?”
Her three kids were watching from the car, and she instructed them to keep recording.
The incident occurred on Friday evening (August 19).
Deputy Desue’s blared his sirens on a dark rural road for Ebony to pull over for speeding.
Ebony drove approximately a mile after hearing the sirens to a well-lit area for safety.
She stopped at a gas station, got out of the vehicle with her hands up, and she tried to explain to the officer that she kept driving to get to a well-lit area.
The reason why I did not stop is because I’m in the middle of nowhere and my husband tell me…
Before she could finish Deputy Desue interrupts.
I don’t care about why. Just shut up… about the why. I don’t care about why…
Ebony said she let him know that she was four months pregnant because, from the way he pulled her, she felt he may have thrown her to the ground.
She explained that she remained calm in fear of her life.
I didn’t give him a reason for him to harm me in front of my children, and so my calmness really came in because I was afraid for my life.
Bradford County Sheriff, Gordon Smith, says he’s disappointed the incident happen, and “We don’t deal with Black and White, we deal with right and wrong.”
Apparently, Deputy Desue didn’t get that message.
Sheriff Smith said he would want his wife, daughter, or neighbor to do the same thing Ebony did if they felt unsafe.
Ebony’s attorney says he will pursue any avenue to prevent this from happening to others.
How law enforcement is supposed to react on a speeding ticket, but we see it more and more and usually it involves stereotype, usually it involves racial injustice.
Pregnant Florida mom Ebony Washington said she is an educated woman, and she felt it was important to speak out to “loosen that stereotype that may have been in their head.”
Watch the GMA report below:
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