Local law enforcement is outraged that a North Carolina woman served only a half night in jail and was released on a $3000 bond after she allegedly struck a police officer with her car during a street takeover, plowed him over her hood, then sped off into the night.
Tanaezah Michelle Austin, 25, faces a felony charge of assault with a deadly weapon on a government official in connection with the incident last Sunday in northwest Charlotte, according to news outlets.
Police located Austin on Monday and booked her into jail, but she was released on bond at 3 a.m. on Tuesday.
The incident occurred in the middle of a wild Charlotte street takeover.
Commonly called “sideshows,” such gatherings have become an urban plague in cities across the U.S, organized through social media and featuring cars burning rubber as they do pinwheels dangerously close to onlookers.
“These are among the worst of the worst incidents that we have to deal with in Charlotte,” Dan Redford, president of the Charlotte Fraternal Order of Police, told Fox News. “To see a $3,000 bond for an offender, regardless of whether she has a criminal history or not, when the intent to flee was clearly there, is pathetic.”
It was shortly after 3 a.m. when Charlotte police responded to reports of the takeover in a commercial parking lot. When officers attempted to break up the event, one approached a black Kia Optima that was attempting to leave, according to a police affidavit.
According to Fox News:
The affidavit states the driver initially stopped as the officer walked in front of the vehicle. But as he moved toward the driver’s side, the driver “began to accelerate rapidly” and struck him, causing him to roll over the hood. Police say the officer was in full uniform and giving verbal commands to stop before he was hit, and was standing directly in front of the vehicle where he “could be clearly seen by the driver.”
The officer was treated for minor injuries at a local hospital.
Randy Sutton, a retired police lieutenant and founder of The Wounded Blue, an advocacy group for injured law enforcement officers, told the cable news outlet that the suspect’s low bond reflects a disturbing trend.
“When I hear about someone being released on a $3,000 bond for running over a police officer on video, it boggles my mind,” Sutton said. “In reality, that means she may have only had to put up about $300. She ran over a cop, and she walked out.”
Sutton said the driver could have been shot, as running over an officer is legally justification to use “deadly force.”
A probable cause hearing is scheduled for March 24.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times true crime best seller House of Secrets and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more
