Rio Vista police release dash-cam video of controversial body slam

Police released dash cam video of an incident in which one of their officer's body-slammed a woman during a traffic stop.

RIO VISTA — A controversial video showing a police officer body-slamming a woman who was suspected of refusing the officer’s orders prompted police to release their own body cam videos.

A 12-minute, 36-second police video the department released publicly on its YouTube page Wednesday shows an officer slamming the woman to the ground. Video posted on social media taken by family involved at the incident went viral on social media after it happened Sunday.

Police released the dash cam video after police opened up an internal investigation into the traffic stop. The story originally was reported by ABC10 in Sacramento, which also reported that police released eight dash-cam videos to local media Monday.

Messages left with Rio Vista police by this newspaper on Wednesday were not returned immediately.

Media reports identified the woman who was body-slammed as Cherish Thomas and said she was a relative of the driver who was pulled over. According to the police dash cam released on YouTube, police pulled her over for expired registration tags and were intending to impound the car.

The police video shows Thomas, with her cell phone out and apparently recording, approaching an officer who repeatedly tells her to stop coming at him. Another woman also walks toward police.

Check back for updates.