Woman says IMPD officer pulled her braids out. Body cam footage doesn't match police report
Who's to blame for escalating the situation more than a year ago was a topic of debate during a recent Citizens' Police Complaint Board meeting.
Glover, 24, had just broken her lease and was getting a hotel for herself and her two kids on March 8, 2024. The mother went to the Days Inn hotel on the northwest side and said she spent her last $150 to book a room. But she knew they wouldn't be sleeping there when she entered it.
"There was poop everywhere," Glover said. "All over the bathroom and the walls. So, I came downstairs and asked the front desk if they could give me another room. He was like, 'no,' and I said, 'well, can I get my money back?' He said 'no, I'm not giving you anything, and I'm calling the police.'"
She waited for police, thinking law enforcement would listen to her plight. Glover said she didn't expect Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Officer Kenneth Pierce to dismiss her claims before she could explain. She also didn't think the encounter would result in having her hair pulled out and being arrested.
She'd never gone to jail before, she said.
Charged with resisting law enforcement and criminal trespassing, Glover bailed out and filed a complaint against Pierce, who had originally booked her on more charges. Her case is going through the judicial system, and she told IndyStar that because of the charges, she's had an even harder time securing housing for her family.
Now, over a year later, the Citizens' Police Complaint Board is reviewing the complaint she filed.
Despite an internal affairs investigation recommending Pierce be exonerated for reasonable force, the board disagreed. They also found Pierce's body cam footage differed from the police report he wrote.
At 10:01 p.m., on March 8, 2024, Pierce was dispatched to the 3900 block of Payne Branch Road at the Days Inn hotel on the report of trouble with a person. According to a probable cause for Glover's arrest written by Pierce, he heard loud arguing from inside the hotel and saw Glover yelling at the front desk staff regarding a refund.
Due to Glover being in an "irate state," Pierce had her step outside so he could talk to her.
Pierce explained that her wanting a refund was a civil matter, and there was nothing police could do, but Glover stated she was not leaving without her money. Pierce explained that once she was trespassed, and if she refused to leave, she would go to jail. Glover said she didn't care and continued to yell
Bhavesh Patel, who was hotel staff, said Glover was no longer welcome at the business, and Glover stated, "Bet, I'll be back."
Pierce began walking back to his patrol car, but noticed Glover walking back toward the business. Pierce once again told Glover that she needed to leave, or she would go to jail. Glover refused, and Pierce told her to turn around as she was being arrested.
Glover refused to turn around.
Pierce physically attempted to turn her around, but Glover was pulling away. Pierce did a physical takedown to get her on the ground. He delivered two knee strikes to Glover's back, attempting to gain control of her hands before delivering an elbow strike to her.
Bystanders began yelling and attempting to surround Pierce, and Glover pulled herself from her sweatshirt, which caused Pierce to lose control of her hands. Eventually, the officer grabbed her and pushed her against his police vehicle. While detained, she requested medical attention for head pain.
Citizens' Police Complaint Board: How to report Indianapolis police misconduct allegations
On June 9, 2025, Glover told her side of what happened to the board. She said she tried to talk to Pierce, but he said, "I don't care," and he was telling hotel staff, 'Come here and trespass her so I can take her to jail.'
The full interaction is less than 4 minutes on body-cam footage that the board watched.
It showed that as soon as Pierce entered the hotel, he was seen waving for Glover to step outside. Although visibly upset and angry, Glover complied. It also showed Pierce dismissing Glover, who was trying to explain the situation to him.
"If you're telling me this is a civil matter, and I have to go to court, I need receipts to show that I actually paid, and the front desk didn't want to give me receipts," Glover said. "I thought (Pierce) was going to give me paperwork, but he was like, 'Leave, leave!' and then he just attacked me."
Footage showed Glover stating she would be back for receipts since police couldn't do anything that night. As Pierce was leaving, the video shows him turning around when Glover started walking and talking outside angrily in front of the hotel.
Pierce tells her a final time to leave, but after Glover repeatedly states, "I need paperwork." That's when Pierce grabs her, and a struggle ensues.
"I did not see an officer trying to resolve the situation," said Brett B. Thomas, a civilian member of the board. "I saw an officer escalating the situation. He didn't give her much of a warning. He just kept saying it's a civil matter with no explanation of what that means or whether she could get her money back. He escalated the situation and then used force."
Indianapolis police Sgt. Wayne Shelton, who is also on the board, explained that in his initial statement, Pierce said he thought he grabbed her hoodie and not her hair.
Another board member, Officer William Payne, criticized Glover's actions, stating she was angry and combative, and from a law enforcement point of view, both the officer and the civilian played a part in the resulting situation.
"It's not her job to de-escalate," countered Gabriel Vaughn, a civilian board member appointed in May by the mayor's office.
The initial charge by the board was against Pierce's use of force, but they discussed introducing another charge of conduct unbecoming of an officer, accusing him of mocking and demeaning Glover. But the process for how that could happen wasn't clear since people only have 60 days from the date of an interaction to file a complaint with the board.
Glover's case, filed more than a year earlier, shows the cracks caused by the board's backlog.
"We're so far behind," Board President Kenneth Riggins said. "We're finally catching up with these cases."
The majority of the board voted contrary to the police department's findings and determined Pierce should not be exonerated. Riggins agreed to meet with Indianapolis Police Chief Chris Bailey to discuss the board's findings. The chief does not have to accept the board's recommendation.
Officer Pierce has been with IMPD for 5 years and was awarded Northwest District Officer of the Year in 2024.
Jade Jackson is a Public Safety Reporter for the Indianapolis Star. You can email her at Jade.Jackson@IndyStar.com and follow her on X, formerly Twitter @IAMJADEJACKSON.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Woman says IMPD officer pulled her braids out. Body cam footage shows all
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fox News
3 hours ago
- Fox News
Nine teens arrested after brutal murder of 16-year-old
Fox News correspondent Madison Scarpino reports on the murder of a South Carolina teenager on 'Fox Report.'
CNN
3 hours ago
- CNN
DC students head back to school amid Trump focus on cleaning up juvenile crime in the district
In southeast Washington, DC, children stood in line Friday to receive new backpacks filled with school supplies, while community organizers passed out free hot dogs and hamburgers to teenagers to celebrate the last few days of summer before. But just a few blocks away, the sight of National Guard trucks cut into the celebration — a reminder that the school year will begin under the shadow of federal troops. 'This is not going to go off well … most middle school kids walk to school by themselves. They're going to have to walk through soldiers and police,' Dara Baldwin, a DC-based activist on the Free DC advisory council, told CNN. 'They're going to be fearful for their lives. … They're either not going to want to go to school, or they're going to react to these people in their space.' President Donald Trump's deployment of federal law enforcement to the nation's capital to combat what he has described as 'roving mobs of wild youth' has ignited fear among parents, activists and youth advocates that Black and Latino teens will face heightened policing as they return to class next week. When Trump announced he was placing the District of Columbia's police department under federal control and deploying National Guard troops, he argued that youth crime in DC demanded urgent intervention. According to a report from the DC Policy Center, the juvenile arrest rate in DC is nearly double the national rate. Data from the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, an independent DC agency that tracks public safety statistics, shows that total juvenile arrests during the first half of 2025 have largely remained consistent with the number in the first half of each year since 2023, when there was an increase after the Covid-19 pandemic. Looking specifically at juvenile arrests for violent offenses, which includes robberies, aggravated assaults and assaults with a deadly weapon, between 2019 and 2020, they dropped from 585 to 347, as did the overall number of arrests in DC during the beginning of the pandemic. That decline was short-lived: The numbers began climbing again in 2022, rising from 466 arrests for violent offenses to 641 in 2023 before dropping again in 2024 to 496, according to the data from the CJCC. Youth advocates cite the city's investment in more resources and programs targeting young people as part of the reason for the drop in arrests for violent offenses. In 2023, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser issued a declaration of a juvenile crime emergency which focused city resources on addressing the issue. This year the DC Council approved stricter juvenile curfews that also give the city's police chief the ability to double down with even stricter emergency short-term curfews. She used those curfews recently around Navy Yard, an area near the Washington Nationals ballpark and the waterfront. 'It's clear that the target is the inner-city youth,' Kelsye Adams, an activist for DC statehood and director of DC Vote, told CNN at a rally outside of the Metropolitan Police Department headquarters on Friday. 'And what I've seen on the news from where the police checkpoints and the neighborhoods that they're going in, they are directly attacking young, Black and brown kids.' The White House says the administrations policies are aimed at making DC safer. 'Washington DC leaders have failed the city's youth – juvenile crime has been a serious concern for residents and local leaders even before President Trump's intervention to Make DC Safe Again,' Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, told CNN in a statement. 'The status quo of ignoring kids committing violent crimes has not worked, it has only exasperated the situation – President Trump is making DC safe again for everyone.' The DC Metropolitan Police Department did not respond to CNN's request for comment. CNN has spoken to more than a dozen DC residents about Trump's crime crackdown and whether it will impact the children in their communities – and some parents say the extra presence could reduce violence. 'I got mixed reactions with that,' Kim Hall, 45, a longtime district resident who has three children in the DC public school system, told CNN at the backpack event in Anacostia. 'To me, it actually makes the street more safe, because a lot of the crime that goes on, especially over there in southwest and southeast, is happening while the kids are going to school or they're coming out of school.' 'If the police is around, there won't be so much of the gun violence,' she added. Anthony Motley, 76, a DC resident who has 10 grandchildren in the school system, told CNN that young people are 'the future, and we need to protect the future. So, whatever we need to do to protect our future, I'm for that.' Others CNN spoke with, including Sharelle Stagg, a DC resident and educator in the public school system, aren't convinced that increased patrols and law enforcement are going to help their children. 'I'm not certain this is the best strategy, especially when you think about just the way that it was rolled out and kind of presented to communities,' Stag said. Tahir Duckett, executive director of the Center for Innovations in Community Safety at Georgetown Law School, agrees that Trump deploying National Guard troops to DC could make violence worse, not better. 'When you have these major shows of force, and you have people who feel like the police aren't actually part of the community, but are more of an occupying force, then you tend to see people not want to cooperate with the police,' he said, which 'can lead to increased crime rates.' Youth advocates also told CNN they are young Black and Brown men will be the most impacted by the larger law enforcement presence. Black children make up more than half of DC's youth population, according to census data. 'I've been brought up into the community where we've seen this often. So it might look different to some other people, but not me, not the community that I come from, and our communities have been targeted for years,' Carlos Wilson, who works with Alliance of Concerned Men, a group that helps inner-city youth and hosted the back to school event in southeast DC, told CNN. He argued that Trump could use the funding for more resources to help young people in this city instead of on an increased law enforcement presence. 'That's what's gonna make it better, more programs, more opportunities for the younger folks. I think that's what's gonna make our community better. Not police presence. We need resources. We need help, not people coming in.'
CNN
3 hours ago
- CNN
DC students head back to school amid Trump focus on cleaning up juvenile crime in the district
In southeast Washington, DC, children stood in line Friday to receive new backpacks filled with school supplies, while community organizers passed out free hot dogs and hamburgers to teenagers to celebrate the last few days of summer before. But just a few blocks away, the sight of National Guard trucks cut into the celebration — a reminder that the school year will begin under the shadow of federal troops. 'This is not going to go off well … most middle school kids walk to school by themselves. They're going to have to walk through soldiers and police,' Dara Baldwin, a DC-based activist on the Free DC advisory council, told CNN. 'They're going to be fearful for their lives. … They're either not going to want to go to school, or they're going to react to these people in their space.' President Donald Trump's deployment of federal law enforcement to the nation's capital to combat what he has described as 'roving mobs of wild youth' has ignited fear among parents, activists and youth advocates that Black and Latino teens will face heightened policing as they return to class next week. When Trump announced he was placing the District of Columbia's police department under federal control and deploying National Guard troops, he argued that youth crime in DC demanded urgent intervention. According to a report from the DC Policy Center, the juvenile arrest rate in DC is nearly double the national rate. Data from the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, an independent DC agency that tracks public safety statistics, shows that total juvenile arrests during the first half of 2025 have largely remained consistent with the number in the first half of each year since 2023, when there was an increase after the Covid-19 pandemic. Looking specifically at juvenile arrests for violent offenses, which includes robberies, aggravated assaults and assaults with a deadly weapon, between 2019 and 2020, they dropped from 585 to 347, as did the overall number of arrests in DC during the beginning of the pandemic. That decline was short-lived: The numbers began climbing again in 2022, rising from 466 arrests for violent offenses to 641 in 2023 before dropping again in 2024 to 496, according to the data from the CJCC. Youth advocates cite the city's investment in more resources and programs targeting young people as part of the reason for the drop in arrests for violent offenses. In 2023, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser issued a declaration of a juvenile crime emergency which focused city resources on addressing the issue. This year the DC Council approved stricter juvenile curfews that also give the city's police chief the ability to double down with even stricter emergency short-term curfews. She used those curfews recently around Navy Yard, an area near the Washington Nationals ballpark and the waterfront. 'It's clear that the target is the inner-city youth,' Kelsye Adams, an activist for DC statehood and director of DC Vote, told CNN at a rally outside of the Metropolitan Police Department headquarters on Friday. 'And what I've seen on the news from where the police checkpoints and the neighborhoods that they're going in, they are directly attacking young, Black and brown kids.' The White House says the administrations policies are aimed at making DC safer. 'Washington DC leaders have failed the city's youth – juvenile crime has been a serious concern for residents and local leaders even before President Trump's intervention to Make DC Safe Again,' Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, told CNN in a statement. 'The status quo of ignoring kids committing violent crimes has not worked, it has only exasperated the situation – President Trump is making DC safe again for everyone.' The DC Metropolitan Police Department did not respond to CNN's request for comment. CNN has spoken to more than a dozen DC residents about Trump's crime crackdown and whether it will impact the children in their communities – and some parents say the extra presence could reduce violence. 'I got mixed reactions with that,' Kim Hall, 45, a longtime district resident who has three children in the DC public school system, told CNN at the backpack event in Anacostia. 'To me, it actually makes the street more safe, because a lot of the crime that goes on, especially over there in southwest and southeast, is happening while the kids are going to school or they're coming out of school.' 'If the police is around, there won't be so much of the gun violence,' she added. Anthony Motley, 76, a DC resident who has 10 grandchildren in the school system, told CNN that young people are 'the future, and we need to protect the future. So, whatever we need to do to protect our future, I'm for that.' Others CNN spoke with, including Sharelle Stagg, a DC resident and educator in the public school system, aren't convinced that increased patrols and law enforcement are going to help their children. 'I'm not certain this is the best strategy, especially when you think about just the way that it was rolled out and kind of presented to communities,' Stag said. Tahir Duckett, executive director of the Center for Innovations in Community Safety at Georgetown Law School, agrees that Trump deploying National Guard troops to DC could make violence worse, not better. 'When you have these major shows of force, and you have people who feel like the police aren't actually part of the community, but are more of an occupying force, then you tend to see people not want to cooperate with the police,' he said, which 'can lead to increased crime rates.' Youth advocates also told CNN they are young Black and Brown men will be the most impacted by the larger law enforcement presence. Black children make up more than half of DC's youth population, according to census data. 'I've been brought up into the community where we've seen this often. So it might look different to some other people, but not me, not the community that I come from, and our communities have been targeted for years,' Carlos Wilson, who works with Alliance of Concerned Men, a group that helps inner-city youth and hosted the back to school event in southeast DC, told CNN. He argued that Trump could use the funding for more resources to help young people in this city instead of on an increased law enforcement presence. 'That's what's gonna make it better, more programs, more opportunities for the younger folks. I think that's what's gonna make our community better. Not police presence. We need resources. We need help, not people coming in.'
