A western Pennsylvania police officer may face disciplinary action after a video of him using force while taking a woman into custody went viral. While officials are silent on the details of the incident, the woman’s attorney believes her civil rights were violated by the cop when he used excessive force to detain her.

Video screenshot captures an enraged officer yelling a Black woman over a traffic accident

Recorded by someone who was in the driver’s car on Sunday, June 5, the video shows a North Versailles police officer confronting a Black woman after she was involved in a hit-and-run crash with his daughter. The unnamed officer can be heard hurling obscenities at the motorist, as he makes her aware he had a personal stake in the incident, CBS News reports.

He asks in the footage, “What’s the matter with you?” 

The video does not start at the beginning, rather with the driver on the ground with her hands secured behind her back. 

The cop then picks the woman up and appears to slam her onto the hood of another police officer’s cruiser. His language becomes aggressively more profane.

At one point during the exchange he says, “Do you know who you just rear-ended?”

“A kid in the car. You stupid (expletive). Get back in the car right now you stupid (expletive),” he said during his tirade. “That’s my kid. You could’ve killed someone. You stupid (expletive).”

The woman, who also had a child in her car, allegedly rear-ended the officer’s daughter.

In response to the video that is gaining national attention, a representative from the North Versailles police union, North Versailles Police Department chief, and commissioners met with the officer to get his perspective on what happened. The meeting was held at the Township building, the same place the alleged accident took place.

One North Versailles commissioner, George Thompson, said in an interview with WPXI regarding the incident, he was “naturally surprised.”

“We don’t want to hear our police swearing like that, but there’s more to the story, and it’s going to come out,” he continued.

The commissioner would not go into details about the incident and the context shared by the officer.

According to the officer, the woman crashed into the back of his car while the daughter’s grandmother was driving. He said he was waiting for the grandmother to drop his daughter off in front of the Township building. That is when he says he saw the drive off and he went into pursuit.

No official confirmation if the woman had indeed abandoned the scene of the accident after rear-ending the car has been made.

The officer told the officials he followed the driver and stopped her.

Personal injury and civil rights attorney Todd Hollis, who is working with the woman, said, “Even if it was a hit-and-run, that didn’t justify what he did.”

“Force is only necessary when force is necessary,” he continued. “And it wasn’t necessary.”

“The car was stopped, she had stopped and put her hands on the steering wheel,” Hollis described about the incident before highlighting what the officer did.

Hollis said, “The police officer had a daughter in the car, and my client the rear of the car. His actions ensued when he removed her from the car, slammed her on the car and on the ground. The video speaks for itself.”

The incident is on the township commissioners’ docket for the upcoming council meeting on Wednesday, June 15. There they will discuss if the officer will be disciplined for his actions.

As of publishing, the officer remains employed by the NVPD. The commissioners say he will stay on the job until at least June 16, after the meeting. The disciplinary action will not take place on the day of the meeting because the township solicitor will be out of town, KDKA-TV reports.

Thompson also said the officer is a good cop, remarking, “(The officer) gave us his reasoning what happened. There’s more than meets the eye.”

The unidentified woman has not been charged in the incident as of this writing.