Woman with dementia sat in jail cell without medical care for 6 hours

How callous Colorado cops left 73-year-old dementia sufferer in a cell for six HOURS after breaking her arm and dislocating her shoulder over $13 stolen groceries – and laughed as she cried out for a doctor

  • Loveland Police Officers Austin Hopp and Daria Jalali arrested Karen Garner, 73, on June 26, 2020, after she left Walmart without paying $13-worth of items  
  • Footage from Hopp’s body-camera shows him slamming Garner, who has dementia, to the ground, causing her to fracture her elbow and dislocate her arm
  • In the first hour in custody, Garner screamed out in pain or pleaded for help 51 times, according to an amended lawsuit 
  •  Attorney Sarah Schielke told DailyMail.com that Garner still doesn’t have full mobility of her arm, ‘Mentally it’s a heartbreaking picture’
  • New video released by an attorney for Garner’s family on Monday purportedly showed the officers laughing at body-camera footage of the arrest hours later
  • Hopp is heard saying: ‘Ready for the pop?’ at the moment Garner’s arm came out of its socket 
  • Schielke filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Hopp on April 15
  • State prosecutors subsequently opened a criminal investigation into Hopp, Jalali and their supervisor, Sgt Phil Metzler
  • Do you know these cops? Email tips to [email protected] 

An elderly woman with dementia sat in a jail cell without medical care for six hours and cried out for help 51 times in the first hour alone while cops just 10 feet away laughed at an arrest video that showed them breaking her arm.

In the first hour alone, Karen Garner, 73, screamed: ‘They hurt my shoulders’ 22 times, ‘They hurt my wrists’ 13 times, ‘They keep hurting’ eight times and ‘It hurts’ eight times, according to an amended lawsuit against the city of Loveland police department filed earlier this week and audio that can be heard from a security camera.

She was arrested on a Friday at 4:36pm but it wasn’t until 10:38pm that a family member even knew about Garner’s injuries or her arrest – and they heard it from hospital staff where she eventually had been transported, the lawsuit says.  

Garner had been arrested after the Loveland, Colorado Walmart called the police when she tried to leave the store with $13 in items without paying. 

The store recovered the items before Garner was on her way and suffered no loss. They told police that, but the officer who arrived to the scene, finding Garner picking flowers by the side of the road, apparently hadn’t gotten the message – or ignored it.

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Garner is seen slumped in a holding cell as officers mocked video of her arrest. In the caption of her YouTube video on Monday, Garner’s attorney Sarah Schielke said she was ‘alone, confused and crying in pain’ for six hours without any medical attention

Garner cried for help and screamed that she was in pain 51 times in the first hour alone while cops 10 just feet away laughing at an arrest video that showed them breaking her arm, according to a lawsuit

Nearly a year after the June 2020 incident, Garner still doesn’t have full mobility of her arm, and ‘mentally it’s a heartbreaking picture,’ Shielke told DailyMail.com. Garner, who suffers from dementia, is pictured in agony in the jail cell, with her hands behind her back

He, another responding officer and eventually a supervisor all were involved in slamming Garner to the ground as they arrested her while she cried out in confusion. She was then transported to the local police station where she sat in a jail holding cell for booking. 

Officers caught on security video fist-bumped each other and joked about her arrest while she could be heard from the holding cell begging for help.  

The video went viral this month after it was released in a federal lawsuit Garner’s family filed against the department. 

The federal lawsuit names the arrest officers – Austin Hopp and Daria Jalali – as well as Sgt. Phil Metzler, the supervising officer, and accuses them of violating her civil rights. 

‘For the six hours that Ms. Garner was kept in custody by Loveland and the jail, despite many jokes made about her being disabled and mentally unfit, no one attempted to locate Ms. Garner’s caregiver, console or help her, de-escalate her, or alert her loved ones to her terrible situation,’ the lawsuit says.  

Garner was ultimately diagnosed with a fractured arm, dislocated shoulder as well as a sprained wrist and was covered in scrapes and bruises, according the lawsuit.

She has never regained full mobility in her arm, her lawyer Sarah Shielke told DailyMail.com. She still needs help with everyday tasks like getting dressed or showering, Shielke said, because of her injuries.

Garner’s family said the Loveland police treated their mother and grandmother like ‘an animal.’ They said in a statement given to DailyMail.com that the silence of the Loveland Police Department is unacceptable and a ‘slap in the face.’

‘What more could anyone need to see after watching these videos?’ they said in the statement. ‘They care more about protecting their officers and themselves than they do about the people they’ve hurt.’

They called for the officers to be fired and criminally charged. 

A photograph of Garner’s severely bruised arm is seen above

Photos taken in the aftermath of the arrest show Garner with a severely bruised and swollen arm. She also sustained a bloody nose

From time to time in the first two hours after her arrest, officers came to her cell to ask her a question, and Garner screamed that she was in pain, the lawsuit says. 

At one point, the officers went in to take photographs of Garner, who again complained, ‘It hurts – my shoulder.’ 

Officer Austin Hopp allegedly responded, ‘I know.’  Hopp was one of the arresting officers and named in the amended lawsuit   

‘Mentally it’s a heartbreaking picture,’ Shielke said. 

The entire ordeal was because Garner forgot to pay $13.88 for a candy bar, a can of Pepsi and a T-shirt before she left Walmart, Shielke said.

Garner (pictured in a photograph taken several years ago) is  five feet tall, weighs 80 pounds and suffers from dementia

Garner was picking wildflowers as she headed to her apartment two blocks away when she was tackled by Hopp, her lawyer said. 

The family wants everyone to know that the first eight seconds of the bodycam footage before Hopp tackles her and takes her down was who Karen was, Shielke told DailyMail.com.

‘Happy, carefree, enjoying the outdoors, picking flowers,’ Shielke said. ‘After this event, all that is gone. She is fearful, distrustful of everyone, reclusive. She is sad. The few things about life she was still able to enjoy as an elderly woman with declining cognitive health prior to this event, were obliterated by the Loveland Police Department.’  

While Garner screamed in pain and pleaded for help, cops were caught on video from the jail laughing at the arrest and fist bumping each other as they watched the body-camera footage hours later.    

City officials haven’t apologized to the woman or her family, according to the Loveland Reporter-Herald. The footage of the arrest went viral on social media after its release earlier the month in the wake of a new lawsuit against the department.   

Footage from Hopp’s body-camera shows him slamming Garner to the ground, causing her to fracture her elbow and dislocate her shoulder. 

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Surveillance video purportedly shows Loveland Police Officers Austin Hopp, Daria Jalali and a colleague laughing as they watched body-camera footage of their violent arrest of Karen Garner on June 26, 2020 

Officers Hopp and Jalali arrested 73-year-old Garner, who has dementia, last June after she left Walmart without paying for $13-worth of items. Body-camera footage (pictured) showed Hopp slamming Garner to the ground after she repeatedly said: ‘I’m going home’

At one point, the officers went in to take photographs of Garner, who again complained, ‘It hurts – my shoulder.’ Officer Austin Hopp allegedly responded, ‘I know.’ Hopp was one of the arresting officers and named in the amended lawsuit

Hopp (left) and Jalali (right) appeared to exchange a fist bump after placing Garner in a cell. Before extending his hand Hopp asked Jalali if she’d turned her body-camera off

The arrest happened on June 26, 2020, but the video didn’t go viral until earlier this month when it was released in a federal lawsuit. 

Outrage over the clip was so intense that state prosecutors launched a criminal investigation into Hopp, Jalali and their supervisor on-scene supervising sergeant Metzler last week. Officers Tyler Blackett and Sgt. Antolina Hill have been added to the suit, Garner’s attorney said Monday.

Attorney Sarah Schielke released surveillance video purportedly showing Hopp and Jalali celebrating as they reviewed body-camera footage of Garner’s arrest. 

Schielke said the officers could be heard mocking the ‘pop’ when Garner’s shoulder dislocated while she sat a few yards away in a cell without having received any medical attention.  

Surveillance footage from the Loveland Police Department showed three officers – two of them identified as Hopp and Jalali – gathered around a computer to watch the body-camera footage. 

‘Ready for the pop?’ Hopp is heard saying in apparent reference to Garner’s arm coming out of it’s socket.

When the third unnamed officer asks: ‘What popped?’, Hopp nonchalantly replies: ‘I think it was her shoulder.’ 

‘I can’t believe I threw a 73-year-old on the ground,’ Hopp says. 

Jalali quipped: ‘It’s like live TV… Body-cams are my favorite thing to watch, I could watch livestream body-cams all day.’ 

The third officer suggests creating a TV show dedicated to body-camera footage before telling Hopp of his arrest: ‘Impressive, buddy.’  

Surveillance footage from the Loveland Police Department showed three officers – two of them identified as Hopp and Jalali – gathered around a computer to watch the body-camera footage

In the caption of her YouTube video on Monday, Schielke wrote that the officers made their commentary while Garner ‘remained handcuffed to a bench in a cell just 10 feet away from them, alone, confused and crying in pain. She would ultimately go over six hours without any medical attention.’

The civil rights attorney said Garner’s family hired a sound engineer to enhance audio on booking videos from the day of her arrest. 

‘The video reveals a grotesque culture of callous disregard for the health and safety of citizens,’ Schielke wrote.

‘The officers fist bump one another multiple times in self-congratulation for both the assault on Garner and the intimidation of the citizen who attempted to complain about it.’ 

She continued: ‘This is utterly disgusting. These videos cannot be unseen or unheard. I am sorry to have to share them with the public. This will be traumatic and deeply upsetting for everyone to see.

‘But as it often goes with bad police departments, it seems this is the only way to make them change. They have to be exposed. If I didn’t release this, the Loveland Police’s toxic culture of arrogance and entitlement, along with their horrific abuse of the vulnerable and powerless, would carry on, business as usual.’ 

A statement from the attorney representing Garner in a federal civil rights lawsuit against the department said supervising officer, Sgt. Phil Metzler (right), knew Garner was injured and allowed her to be kept in a holding pen with no care

Officer Daria Jalali is seen in footage from Hopp’s body-camera during Garner’s arrest

Blackett, one of the officers named to the suit, can be heard in the video asking Hopp if he read Garner her Miranda rights, according to the attorney.  Hill meanwhile, allegedly reviewed an affidavit regarding use of force and then joined in on jokes being made about Garner’s injuries.

Hopp has been placed on administrative leave and Jalali and Metzler was re-assigned to desk duty pending the internal investigation by the District Attorney for Larimer and Jackson counties, Gordon McLaughlin. 

McLaughlin said he had been unware of the incident until the body-camera video was released earlier this month. He has not publicly commented about the surveillance video.  

McLaughlin announced his investigation, which is being led by the Fort Collins Police Services with assistance from the US Attorney’s Office and the FBI, last Monday after Schielke filed the lawsuit on behalf of Garner’s family. 

The probe could result in unspecified criminal charges against Hopp, Jalali and Metzler.  

If they don’t charge the officers, prosecutors must release a letter explaining why they chose not to do so, according to the Denver Post.  

Garner’s children called the investigation a ‘small but overdue step in the right direction’.

‘Clearly, the newly-elected DA understands what we suspected last summer — that only an independent, outside investigation, with all the world’s attention, will reveal the truth,’ they said in a statement. 

The Loveland Police Department is also conducting its own review of the incident. 

Last June, store employees had stopped Garner at the exit of the Walmart and retrieved the items she hadn’t paid for, according to her family’s lawsuit.  

Store officials said it did not suffer a loss from the incident, but an employee proceeded to report Garner to police anyway.  

When Hopp and Jalali confronted Garner she appeared visibly confused in body camera footage, repeatedly telling the officer she was just going home. 

‘Ma’am I don’t think you want to play it this way,’ Hopp says. ‘You just left Walmart. Do you need to be arrested right now?’

Within a few minutes, Hopp is seen dragging Garner — who is five feet tall and weighs 80 pounds — to the ground as she screams: ‘I’m going home’. 

Garner is subsequently seen being pushed up against the officers’ police car as she continues to wail: ‘I’m going home!’

‘Quit it!’ Jalali commands as she pulls Garner’s arm behind her back.

At that point, a snapping sound can be heard on the bodycam footage and Garner cries out in pain. 

Garner appeared visibly confused during the arrest, repeatedly crying out: ‘I’m going home’

In another portion of the video, a driver can be seen stopping to inquire about the arrest. 

‘Do you have to use that much aggression?’ the passerby asks the cops. 

‘Get out of here! This is not your business!’ Hopp replies.  

Soon after, a third officer arrives at the scene and asks: ‘Are you guys all good?’

‘A little muddy, a little bloody, that’s how it works!’  Jalali says before confirming the blood was from Garner. 

Garner was taken into custody where she was reportedly held for hours without medical attention, despite insisting she was in pain.  

‘Ready for the pop?’ Hopp is heard saying in apparent reference to Garner’s arm coming out of its socket as she was pressed up against a squad car 

Photos taken in the aftermath of the arrest show the elderly Garner with a severely bruised and swollen arm. She also sustained a bloody nose. 

Nobody sought medical help for Garner for about six hours after she was arrested, according to the lawsuit. 

‘It is a hard-to-watch video,’ attorney Schielke told the Reporter-Herald. 

‘It is the opposite of community policing. I thought a lot about this case as I have prepared to file it, and on paper and in the legal pleading it is an excessive-force case. In reality when you watch the video, you see this is a torture case.’  

The lawsuit claims the arrest violated her constitutional protections against excessive force and to have due process and also violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. 

According to the lawsuit, forgetting to pay for items in stores is common among those with dementia. 

It also said Garner suffers from sensory aphasia, which impairs her ability to communicate and understand what other people are saying.

In addition to her physical injuries, the lawsuit claims Garner now experiences fear, trauma and anxiety whenever she leaves her home.    

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