Cop Under Fire For Drag A 60 Year Old Lady Out Of Car And Slamming Her To The Pavement Over A Busted Headlight

A routine traffic stop in Northampton quickly escalated into yet another example of what some are calling excessive use of force by a police officer.

Within minutes of pulling over 60-year-Marisol Driouech of Holyoke for a broken headlight, police officer John Sellew yelled at Driouech, pulled her out of the vehicle and pinned her to the ground after she appears not to have understood requests made of her, as shown on dashcam footage of the incident on April 4. English is not her first language. A second officer arrived and pepper sprayed Driouech in the face, the video shows.

According to the police report, after Officer Sellew put on his lights to signal the driver to pull over, it takes Driouech a quarter mile to stop.

Sellew then goes up to the Driouech and says he’s pulling her over for the headlight that’s out and failure to pull over.

Driouech explains to Sellew that she didn’t know why she was being pulled over and tensions quickly escalate.

After being asked to produce her license and registration 2 more times Sellew asks Driouech to step out of her vehicle.

The police report states Sellew saw Driouech roll up her window and reach for her gear shift.

Thinking she was making a run for it, Sellew then takes Driouech out of her car.

The two struggled on the ground for just under 3 minutes before a second Northampton police officer who was called to the scene pepper sprayed Driouech while she was being restrained.