Woman slammed onto ground by San Bernardino police officer sues – NBC Los Angeles

A lady who was slammed to the ground by a San Bernardino police officer final yr when she was a minor has filed a lawsuit towards town and two officers.

Erin Cowser, 18, and her attorneys introduced on Friday a lawsuit towards San Bernardino Police Department Officer Jackson Tubbs, Officer Cynthia Guillen and town. The grievance follows Cowser’s arrest from May 21, 2025, by which video captured her being slammed onto the ground by Tubbs, in line with her attorneys. She was 17 years outdated on the time.

According to the lawsuit, San Bernardino police officers have been initially known as to a report of youngsters combating at a Food 4 Less grocery retailer. The grievance states that Tubbs walked as much as Cowser, grabbed her by her backpack, pulled her over to the patrol automotive and threw her to the ground.

Video captured on a cellphone and physique digital camera footage worn by Guillen recorded the arrest.

“A hip toss that flipped Erin in the air, her legs flying over her head, and she landed face-first, head-first on the concrete,” Toni Jaramillo, considered one of Cowser’s attorneys, mentioned. “And what’s even worse was that he had her cuffed, her hands cuffed behind her back, so she had no way to brace herself.”

Cowser and her attorneys mentioned she did nothing to immediate the officer’s actions.

They say the then-high college senior was contained in the grocery retailer with buddies when one other group of younger folks confronted them. The plaintiff mentioned she was attacked by the group and as she left the shop, Tubbs appeared to strategy her immediately.

The recalled plaintiff feeling his backpack being tugged after which making an attempt to take it off. As she tried to take her backpack off, Cowser mentioned officers have been making an attempt to handcuff her.

“Then he told me, he was like, ‘Stop resisting,’ and that was the last thing I remember,” she mentioned. “Then I awoke, I used to be at the back of the cop automotive on the freeway. And I seemed down, and I noticed a bunch of blood on my physique, and my chin was nonetheless leaking. And he had my telephone in his hand, and I seemed up and I requested him, I mentioned, ‘What occurred to me? Like, what’d you do to me?’ He was like, ‘You fell.’ And then it went black once more.”

Cowser mentioned Tubbs later advised her she’d been injured by the youngsters inside the shop. However, physique digital camera footage attorneys offered from Guillen confirmed that Cowser did not look like bloody or injured earlier than Tubbs grabbed her.

The lawsuit didn’t specify the greenback quantity Cowser is searching for from the lawsuit.

Both town of San Bernardino and its police division declined a request for remark, citing pending litigation.