Karen Garner, 73, who suffers from dementia, was arrested last June after allegedly forgetting to pay for $13 worth of items at a Walmart in Loveland, Colorado
Newly-released video shows the moment an elderly woman with dementia was confronted by Walmart employees after forgetting to pay for her items and later walking home empty-handed, just moments before she was violently arrested by police.
Security footage obtained by DailyMail.com shows 73-year-old Karen Garner trying to walk out of a Loveland, Colorado Walmart last June after allegedly failing to pay for $13 worth of items: a soda, a candy bar, a T-shirt, and wipe refills.
Garner was stopped by staff and asked to return to the store where they were ultimately able to recover the merchandise.
Despite suffering no loss, Walmart reported the incident to police, who later located Garner picking flowers down the road and arrested her by slamming her to the ground, causing her to fracture her elbow and dislocate her shoulder.
Footage of the violent arrest went viral after its release earlier this month as part of a new lawsuit filed by Garner’s family against the Loveland Police Department over violation of her civil rights.
Attorney Sarah Schielke said forgetting to pay for items in stores is common among people with dementia and revealed Garner also suffers from sensory aphasia, which impairs her ability to communicate and understand what other people are saying.
Garner’s impairment seems to be evident in store security footage which shows her apparently trying to dodge employees as they attempt to detain her at the exit.
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Security footage obtained by DailyMail.com shows Walmart employees attempting to detain Garner as she tries to walk out of the store without paying for $13 worth of items
Garner, who appears to be holding the items in her hand, is blocked from leaving after being confronted by two male employees
She is eventually escorted back into the store, where the unpaid items were returned to staff
In a 53-second inaudible clip, Garner is seen holding the unpaid items in her hand as she’s confronted by a male employee who tries to block her from leaving.
The man attempts to direct her back into the store, but Garner appears to be uncooperative, prompting another employee to come and assist.
The two men eventually escort the grandmother back into the store where the items were retrieved.
The security footage reveals Garner was later stopped a second time while walking out of the store after the merchandise was returned.
In a 36-second clip, she is seen attempting to leave, this time empty-handed, as two men and a woman chase after her in another attempt to detain her.
Garner manages to evade them and exits the store, continuing to walk down the road at a seemingly normal pace as employees trail behind.
She continues to head towards E 13th Street, near the 2600 block of Mountain Lion Drive, where she was eventually stopped by officer Austin Hopp.
In an affidavit of the warrantless arrest, Hopp said he located Garner shortly after she ‘fled on foot’ and activated his emergency lights to get her to stop.
‘Garner turned around and looked at me and continued walking eastbound. I got out of my patrol car, identified myself as police and gave her several lawful orders to stop,’ he said in the document.
‘To be noted, I was wearing a full Loveland PD patrol officer uniform with a clearly presented badge on the area. Garner said she was going home and continued walking away from me.’
Another clip shows Garner walking out of the store and being chased by employees after the items were returned
Garner appears to dodge workers as they try to block her from leaving. According to attorney Sarah Schielke, the 73-year-old suffers from dementia as well as sensory aphasia, which impairs her ability to communicate and understand what other people are saying
Two men and a woman are seen struggling to detain Garner at the store’s exit. She eventually manages to escape them and walks out
Another clip also shows Garner walking out of the store empty-handed after the confrontation and heading to her home located two blocks away
Garner appears to be walking at a normal pace with employees trailing behind as they try to catch up to her again
In body camera footage released by Schielke, Garner appears visibly confused, repeatedly telling the officer she was just going home.
Schielke said in an amended complaint filed this week that Garner had walked out of the store after being detained because she was unable to ‘communicate’ with staff or ‘fully grasp what was going on’.
She claimed Hopp then responded to the call, but did not ‘talk to anyone at Walmart first’ or request any additional information.
‘Instead he just went looking for a petite elderly lady walking eastbound in a neighborhood next to Walmart, as had been described by Walmart employees to dispatch,’ the lawsuit states.
According to Schielke, Hopp found Garner a quarter mile away from the store, ‘walking peaceably in a field’ and ‘picking wildflowers as she headed to her apartment.
‘Her walking pace was slow and unhurried,’ she added.
She was eventually placed in handcuffs using a hobble restraint and taken to the police station where she sat in a jail cell for without medical care for six hours.
Loveland Police officers Austin Hopp and Daria Jalali eventually arrested 73-year-old Garner after locating her a quarter mile down the road from the store. Body-camera footage (pictured) showed Hopp slamming Garner to the ground after she repeatedly said: ‘I’m going home’
‘Ready for the pop?’ Hopp is heard saying in apparent reference to Garner’s arm coming out of its socket as she was pressed up against a squad car
Garner appeared visibly confused during the arrest, repeatedly crying out: ‘I’m going home’
Photos taken in the aftermath of the arrest show Garner with a severely bruised and swollen arm. She also sustained a bloody nose
Garner’s family is suing the department as well as officers Austin Hopp, Daria Jalali, who assisted in the arrest, and Sgt. Phil Metzler.
The lawsuit comes amid a national reckoning over the use of force by police against people – including those with mental and physical health conditions.
Garner (pictured in a photograph taken several years ago) is five feet tall, weighs 80 pounds and suffers from dementia
Outrage over the clip was so intense that state prosecutors launched a criminal investigation into officer Austin Hopp, Daria Jalali, who assisted in the arrest, and their supervisor on-scene supervising sergeant Phil Metzler last week.
Officers Tyler Blackett and Sgt. Antolina Hill have been added to the suit, Garner’s attorney said Monday.
Earlier this week Schielke also released surveillance video purportedly showing Hopp and Jalali celebrating as they reviewed body-camera footage of Garner’s arrest.
Surveillance footage from the Loveland Police Department showed three officers – two of them identified as Hopp and Jalali – gathered around a computer to watch the body-camera footage.
‘Ready for the pop?’ Hopp is heard saying in apparent reference to Garner’s arm coming out of it’s socket.
When the third unnamed officer asks: ‘What popped?’, Hopp nonchalantly replies: ‘I think it was her shoulder.’
‘I can’t believe I threw a 73-year-old on the ground,’ Hopp says.
Jalali quipped: ‘It’s like live TV… Body-cams are my favorite thing to watch, I could watch livestream body-cams all day.’
The third officer suggests creating a TV show dedicated to body-camera footage before telling Hopp of his arrest: ‘Impressive, buddy.’
Surveillance footage from the Loveland Police Department showed three officers – two of them identified as Hopp and Jalali – gathered around a computer to watch the body-camera footage
Nearly a year after the June 2020 incident, Garner still doesn’t have full mobility of her arm, and ‘mentally it’s a heartbreaking picture,’ Shielke told DailyMail.com. Garner, who suffers from dementia, is pictured in agony in the jail cell, with her hands behind her back
In the caption of her YouTube video on Monday, Schielke wrote that the officers made their commentary while Garner ‘remained handcuffed to a bench in a cell just 10 feet away from them, alone, confused and crying in pain. She would ultimately go over six hours without any medical attention.’
The civil rights attorney said Garner’s family hired a sound engineer to enhance audio on booking videos from the day of her arrest.
‘The video reveals a grotesque culture of callous disregard for the health and safety of citizens,’ Schielke wrote.
‘The officers fist bump one another multiple times in self-congratulation for both the assault on Garner and the intimidation of the citizen who attempted to complain about it.’
She continued: ‘This is utterly disgusting. These videos cannot be unseen or unheard. I am sorry to have to share them with the public. This will be traumatic and deeply upsetting for everyone to see.
‘But as it often goes with bad police departments, it seems this is the only way to make them change. They have to be exposed. If I didn’t release this, the Loveland Police’s toxic culture of arrogance and entitlement, along with their horrific abuse of the vulnerable and powerless, would carry on, business as usual.’
Hopp has been placed on administrative leave and Jalali and Metzler was re-assigned to desk duty pending the internal investigation by the District Attorney for Larimer and Jackson counties, Gordon McLaughlin.
McLaughlin said he had been unware of the incident until the body-camera video was released earlier this month. He has not publicly commented about the surveillance video.
McLaughlin announced his investigation, which is being led by the Fort Collins Police Services with assistance from the US Attorney’s Office and the FBI, last Monday after Schielke filed the lawsuit on behalf of Garner’s family.
The probe could result in unspecified criminal charges against Hopp, Jalali and Metzler.
If they don’t charge the officers, prosecutors must release a letter explaining why they chose not to do so, according to the Denver Post.
