Wheeling reviewing tape of police pinning woman to ground during arrest
An amateur, handheld video of a skirmish between Wheeling police and a 21-year-old woman has prompted an internal investigation into the arresting officers.
The video, shared more than 500 times on Facebook, shows an officer pinning the woman on a sidewalk and then against a car parked in a parking lot at an apartment complex. He repeatedly warns her, "You're gonna get Tased," and to "relax."
"We told you how many times to walk away," the officer can be heard saying in the video, captured from a balcony above the parking lot. As police restrained her, the woman yells, "Get off of me." She also sounds as if she's crying.
Wheeling police say Ashley Rodriguez, of Chicago, faces obstruction and resisting arrest charges. Christian Ruiz, 19, who lives on the 70 block of North Wolf Road, was charged with aggravated assault to a police officer and resisting arrest.
Rodriguez told Telemundo Chicago that Ruiz is her brother and lives in the apartment complex. As police took him into custody, she asked him what happened.
"He said, 'I don't know what is going on. I haven't done anything wrong,'" Rodriguez told Telemundo in Spanish.
Then a sergeant grabbed her and knocked her down, Rodriguez said. He made her stand up and pushed her over the car, Rodriguez told Telemundo.
"I watched the video, but I couldn't finish it because I was hurt to see how they grabbed my daughter ... like an animal," their mother, Wanda Vargas, told Telemundo.
Police said Rodriguez interfered during the arrest of Ruiz Saturday night.
Police were called there on a report of a fight, Deputy Chief Todd Wolff said. He wouldn't comment on the procedures police used to make the arrests or how many officers were involved.
Wolff said the officers remain on active duty pending the department's investigation, which he called a "routine, internal review."
He said no one was injured. Rodriguez and Ruiz have not filed any formal complaints, he added.
• Daily Herald editor Marco Ortiz contributed to this report.