2 arrested, officer tasered in southwest Detroit during heated altercation

DETROIT (WJBK) - Two were arrested Thursday morning after some intense moments followed by a physical altercation between neighbors and officers in southwest Detroit.

Mario Delgado, 23, and Erica Garcia, 27, are accused of assaulting an officer, but Garcia faces an extra charge -- using a Taser on an officer.

But the family claims she didn't have a choice.

Tineika Smith, whose son was arrested, recorded the incident.

"They drug him from this tree all the way to the front of that car, and they choked him, about six to eight cops on him, they choked him to the point where his eyes were rolling out of the back of his head," she said. "Erica ran out of the house and tased the cop just to get them to get off of him."

Commander Whitney Walton of the 4th Precinct says Garcia hit the officer in the left arm with the Taser .

"Once they got her cuffed, she also had pepper spray in her hand. So she was coming out in full force," she said. "General citizens cannot carry a Taser."

One man who was one of several handcuffed during the investigation, but never arrested, says the officer did not say why they were in the area investigating.

However Detroit police are giving a different tale of what happened.

Walton says the officers were called out to the neighborhood for those men smoking marijuana.

They were smoking a small amount, which only warranted tickets.

The commander also says the incident did get physical, but no one was ever choked.

"There was a use of force. There was no choking to my understanding. It's under investigation though," Walton said.

"He said they're smoking narcotics."

The commander also spoke on the fact that the everyday person has every right to record an incident, but getting this close to an officer is crossing the line.

"Officers don't know what's happening, if you rush up and you're not involved, you never know what could happen," Walton said.

"She did what she had to do to save his life. I don't recommending anyone tasing a cop. It was a (spur) of the moment thing. It wasn't planned out. She just didn't know what to do. We were frightened," Smith said.

The commander says there were five police body cameras recording at this incident, but a time was not given by the DPD on when any of that footage would be released since its part of evidence in this investigation.