‘Are You Kidding Me?’: Innocent Black Woman Nearly Killed By Stolen Car Sues Nashville Police After They Falsely Detained Her as Accomplice
Sasha Palmer, a 39-year-old Black woman who enjoyed taking daily walks on her lunch break in Nashville, Tennessee, was nearly killed by the driver of a stolen truck being pursued by police after he cut across four lanes of traffic, ending up on the sidewalk where she had been walking.
At first, she thought the driver had experienced a medical emergency, but when she saw the Black man in the truck run off with several cops in pursuit, she panicked and ran in the opposite direction on the afternoon of Nov. 15, 2023.
A cop in an overhead police copter that had been following the pursuit radioed to the cops on the ground a description of the Black man fleeing the scene of the crash, but made it clear she was not seen exiting the stolen truck and was likely a victim. Officers reviewing surveillance video also confirmed via radio to the other cops that she was not involved with the stolen car.
However, a random white man who claimed to have witnessed the incident drove up to Metro Nashville Police Sgt. Michael Swoner and claimed to have seen Palmer exiting the stolen vehicle.
“Your suspect is a heavyset Black female with an afro, she has a blue purse on her right now,” the man told the sergeant, according to the lawsuit obtained by Atlanta Black Star. It was filed by Tennessee attorney Kyle Motherhead of the Relentless Advocacy law firm on behalf of Palmer.
Swoner radioed this information to the other cops, telling them to detain Palmer, but the officer watching the surveillance video radioed back that she was not involved.
“The female is not involved,” said the officer who works for Overwatch, a Nashville security company made up of retired certified police officers.
“We played back the camera. The vehicle almost struck her.”
The officers in the helicopter also asked the officers on the ground if they wanted to track Palmer to interview her as a “potential victim.”
Witness Contradicts Himself
When Swoner asked the man described in the lawsuit as a “random, unidentified white man” from which door Palmer had exited the stolen vehicle, the man responded by saying, “I didn’t see, honestly.”
The man explained that he had only seen her running from the crash, which confirmed what the other cops saw, but in no way confirms she was inside the truck.
However, Swoner failed to relay this information to the officers who were tracking down Palmer, insisting she was seen leaving the vehicle even as other officers expressed doubt.
Metro Nashville police officer Holly Genualdi tracked Palmer down as she was walking on a sidewalk, looking at her phone. Genualdi ordered her to place her hands behind her back, telling her she was being detained “because you were close to the scene.”
“Are you kidding me?” Palmer responded. “ I don’t know him. This is so f-cking embarrassing. What am I being detained for?”
“I didn’t do anything,” insisted Palmer, who had never been arrested before in her life. “He almost hit me.”
Palmer then began crying as Genualdi began escorting the handcuffed Black woman to her patrol car.
“Why are you arresting me?” she said through tears.
Metro Nashville police officer Charles Agius then walked up and began rummaging through Palmer’s purse, finding her legally owned handgun, which she carried for protection on her walks.
However, Palmer yelled from inside the patrol car that she did not consent to the cops searching her purse.
Meanwhile, the officers viewing the surveillance footage repeatedly told the officers that Palmer was not a suspect.
“The female in the pink top is not involved in this; she was almost run over by the vehicle as it ran through the intersection,” the officer viewing the surveillance cameras said.
“We have verified that she was a pedestrian, on the sidewalk, she did not exit the vehicle, she was nearly struck by the vehicle when it ran across the intersection.”
Acknowledging the Mistake
By this time, the cops on the ground began to realize they had made a mistake, but did not attempt to release her from the back of their patrol car until Sergeant Swoner arrived, the cop who had ordered them to detain her in the first place based on the claims by the random white man.
“The reason you were stopped is because everybody was telling us that you got out of the truck, too,” Swoner lied to her after he had removed the handcuffs.
The cops eventually drove her home and returned her gun, leaving her traumatized by the experience, even though the entire ordeal lasted only 12 minutes.
Palmer filed a complaint with the department’s internal affairs division, but the officers were all cleared of any wrongdoing, which is part of a long pattern of protecting bad cops, especially those who violate the rights of Black citizens, the claim states.
Over the years, numerous community organizations and individuals have expressed that they believe that MNPD engages in race discrimination and have called for change.
Notwithstanding the data and concerns raised by these reports, entities, and individuals, MNPD has steadfastly denied that its officers engage in race discrimination.
In maintaining this denial strategy, MNPD has likewise failed to seriously address its race discrimination problem, paying lip service in its paper policies to the importance of equal treatment while in reality tacitly permitting its officers to rely on racial profiling.
On information and belief, MNPD officers evidence particular implicit bias against African Americans who are armed. Systemically speaking, MNPD officers tend to view American citizens like Ms. Palmer, who have no criminal history and who have a lawful right to be armed, as dangerous and subject to search and seizure just for possessing a lawful firearm.
Palmer told local media she used to walk on her lunch breaks from her job in the medical services industry to improve her physical and emotional health, especially after the death of her uncle two months before the incident.
But now she no longer does that because of the trauma from the incident.
“I used to love walking outside,” she said in an interview with WTVF. “I would go every day. I don’t walk outside anymore. I have to go to counseling, and I have PTSD.”
The lawsuit lists Swoner, Genualdi, and Agius as defendants, accusing them of violating her Second and Fourth Amendment rights by illegally detaining and searching her and refusing to return her gun until after they had taken her home, as well as false arrest and racial discrimination. Swoner has since retired and the other two cops remained employed.
Watch the WTVF news segment below.