A woman says she was on her way to pick up groceries with two of her children when officers surrounded her car, hit the vehicle and detained her. Northern Virginia Bureau Chief Julie Carey reports.
A Northern Virginia mother is demanding an apology and more from the Fairfax County Police Department after officers intentionally rammed into her car over the weekend with her children inside and handcuffed her. Police said she was not the person they were looking for.
Jamee Kimble said she was on her way to Walmart to get groceries Saturday afternoon in the Alexandria section of Fairfax County. She was with her 5-year-old daughter, her 1-year-old son and a friend.
They noticed a police car trailing them. Then, it pulled up alongside them on Richmond Highway, Kimble said.
When they reached the intersection to turn left into the Walmart parking lot, Fairfax County patrol cars suddenly converged on Kimble's car. One cruiser struck the car head-on.
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"It was just so shocking and mind-wrecking," Kimble said. "Everything happened so fast that when I didn’t realize what was going on he had already hit us."
Officers handcuffed Kimble and her friend, and put her kids in a police car.
"I don’t know what protocol is, but they drew their guns at me and my friend from both sides of the car," she said.
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A video Kimble posted of the aftermath on social media has been viewed thousands of times.
"I still am very angry and, more than anything, hurt because I teach my children that the police are supposed to protect us, and that if they need anything they can call them for help," Kimble told News4.
In addition to the shock, Kimble said she was still healing from a c-section birth just days earlier.
After Kimble was detained, officers determined she was not connected to any crime.
Once she was released, she posted a video about the incident showing an officer and one of the cruisers that blocked her car.
"They stopped the wrong person, the wrong person here on Richmond Highway, y'all," she said in the video.
After Kimble’s video began to to circulate on social media, police released a press release explaining why they stopped her vehicle.
Police said they were responding to an alert on the car from Arlington County police that listed the occupants as armed and dangerous.
The police car that hit Jamee was going less than 10 miles per hour, police said.
The police department said it's conducting an administrative review of the incident.
Kimble wants to know why officers didn’t use lights and sirens for the stop.
She said she wants the police department to fire the officer who hit her car, and she wants an apology.
"I could have lost my life. My kids could have lost their lives. Luckily, everyone in the car was in a seatbelt," she said.
She expects the emotional damage will be long-lasting.
"This was a very traumatic situation, and for a long time, probably forever for me and my 5-year-old, this will forever affect us," Kimble said.
Kimble said she’s scheduled to speak to a police department representative by phone on Wednesday.
