Boyfriend of woman beaten by cop on video: she had traumatic childhood

DETROIT (WJBK) - As police continue their investigation into an officer beating a naked hospital patient - her boyfriend is talking with FOX 2.

The video of a Detroit police officer pummeling a naked woman at Detroit Receiving Hospital is chilling.

On Thursday morning, Detroit Police Chief James Craig called it "troubling" and wondered why the woman was not handcuffed or why a Taser was not used. 

That video was also enough to bring a man who cares for her to tears.

"She is a good person, it hurts me so bad to see her get beat like that," said Robert Dixon.

Dixon, 52, says the woman in the video, who we are not naming, is his girlfriend and has lived with him for the past eight years. She's become his caretaker of sorts.

"She helped me for eight years, for eight years she's looked out for me," Dixon said. "I have MS. She's a wonderful person and she didn't deserve that."

Detroit police is still determining if the officer's repeatedly punching her was a reasonable and necessary use of force after they say the woman bit and then spit on him.

It seems as if it was the spitting that set the 18-year-veteran who is now suspended without pay, off.

Police say they first encountered the woman around 6:45 p.m. Wednesday after getting a call about a naked woman walking near Brainard and Third streets.

They say she did not become aggressive until they took her to Detroit Receiving Hospital.

"I gave her a place to stay and she did good but she started going crazy with the medicine it's called Haldol," said Dixon.

Haldol is an anti-psychotic drug. Dixon says in addition to battling mental illness, his girlfriend is a survivor of a traumatic childhood.

"She was wrong," he said. "Only thing that I'll say, that girl has been dealt the wrong hand ever since she was a child."

It seems that ill fortune followed her to adulthood.
The woman had been hospitalized in stable condition but has been released although she is not home yet.

The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office is investigating.