Police chief stands by officers’ actions in arrest

TYLER — The Tyler Police Department’s Chief of Police spoke to our news partner KETK News on Wednesday after releasing bodycam footage of an altercation between one of their officers and a woman who allegedly discharged the officer’s gun while it remained in his holster.

According to a release from the department, officers responded to a theft call at a Dollar General. The situation then escalated when one of the suspects, Brianna Erwin, allegedly resisted arrest, causing an altercation to ensue. In a bodycam video released by the department, an officer says, “Let go of my gun” before the gun is discharged.

Tyler PD Chief Jimmy Toler spoke with KETK to clear the air and answer the public’s questions. “I can tell you from the point that we hire an individual, whether they attend our academy or they attend another academy that we’ve approved of, they receive hundreds and hundreds of hours of how to be a police officer including arrest control tactics, use of force procedures, all that,” Toler said. “Then annually, as they come back to us, they do all their qualifications and recertification. They do advanced use of force, they do use of force training here. It is something we take very seriously.”

Toler goes into detail to explain how the officer tried to detain the woman and why the situation escalated.

“When [officers] contacted those suspects, there were two distinct behaviors happening here,” Toler said. “First, they were given clear, distinct directions on what to do to let them know that they weren’t free to leave; they were being detained. [Officers] asked [the suspects] to get out of the roadway. One young lady sat down on the curb while another one became more aggressive and belligerent, not following any directions, being argumentative with the officer out there, saying things that he wasn’t asking.”

“As she chose to walk away, that officer used soft hand controls, he is trying to use arrest controls to grab her arm, grab her wrist, put her in handcuffs, and stop the situation from going any further,” Toler said. “She chose to start evading and backing up, and stepping away from the officer. She chose to start the fight, the altercation.”

“I support officers doing whatever is necessary to bring this to a close at this point because here’s the deal: she escalated this to a deadly force situation. She chose to push, to pull the trigger on that gun. These officers didn’t do that. She didn’t have to do that. As I support these officers, we move forward. I support them in the actions they took here that day,” Toler said.

While the woman was allegedly resisting arrest, she yelled that she was pregnant multiple times. Toler explains that arrest protocol does not change much for pregnant women.

“There are some minor changes associated with it, like if we are going to decide to use a taser or not, but it is still an option,” Toler said. “There are no options off the table when we are dealing with an individual. Because somebody says they’re pregnant, even if they are possibly displaying that pregnancy, that doesn’t keep them from harming or killing somebody else.”

An investigation is still underway, and Toler said the department will use all the resources they have to clear up what they believe are false narratives without compromising the investigation.

“We will use all the resources we have and the information we have to correct false narratives,” Toler said. “The piece that was put out there yesterday was in reference to correcting a false narrative that was on social media, where the rumor and the word was that the officer discharged his own firearm was a blatant lie.”