SC police officer put his knee on woman’s neck. Lawyer wants DOJ to investigate
A Greenville attorney will ask the United States Justice Department to investigate a police officer’s arrest in which he pressed his knee on a woman’s neck, making it so she couldn’t breathe, the attorney said.
Attorney Fletcher Smith described the arrest of his client by former Gaffney Police Department Officer Johnny Wayne Miller as unnecessary and violent for a situation that involved nothing more than an argument.
“Black people, white people, whatever color you are, shouldn’t be subjected to this,” Smith said, adding that he believes there’s an economic element to police brutality that has been seen across the country. “This probably wouldn’t happen to the Speaker of the House.”
The State reached out to Miller but did not connect with him.
Miller, a white man who patrolled public housing, arrested the 26-year-old Black woman in mid December 2020 following a dispute with a family member, according to Fletcher.
The woman went to a relative’s nearby apartment after being asked to pick up a child, Fletcher said. When she arrived at the apartment, an argument started. Police showed up and instructed the woman to leave.
“She wasn’t leaving fast enough for him (Miller),” Fletcher said.
The woman drove back home, which was close by, Fletcher said. Miller tried to stop her in his patrol car, court records showed. Miller claimed she didn’t stop, according to a charge and court records. She went into her house to check on her kids and was going to come out to speak with Miller, Fletcher said. An officer kicked in her door before she could come out.
Miller pressed his knee into the woman’s neck to subdue her for an arrest, police records said. It’s unclear if the woman was injured.
Gaffney Police Chief Chris Skinner fired Miller for misconduct on Dec. 30, records show. Miller repeatedly used “excessive force in dealing with the public.”
Miller “showed wanton disregard for a citizens’ well-being by engaging in (a) maneuver that he has not been instructed to use,” his police record said.
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division is investigating Miller but has not charged him.
The woman was charged with failure to stop for blue lights. That charge is pending but if an officer is fired following an arrest, the charge is often dropped.
The woman is considering suing because of the arrest, Smith said.
Miller had worked for the Gaffney Police Department since 1998. In 2014, he was charged with domestic violence and a gun offense and suspended from the department. The charges were dropped and he was reinstated the next year.
The Gaffney woman’s case follows the 2020 killing of George Floyd, a Black man, while restrained with a knee on his neck by a white Minneapolis police officer. That officer, Derek Chauvin, was charged with second degree murder. His trial has attracted extensive coverage in the news.
Placing a knee on the neck is not a maneuver that police trainers teach at the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy.
In a similar incident, as authorities tried to enforce a curfew during protests after Floyd’s death, a Columbia police officer arrested a man with a knee on the suspect’s neck, leading to a internal investigation. The investigation found the knee-to-neck was incidental and did not cause injury, Chief Skip Holbrook said at the time. The officer did not violate any policy and went through refresher training.
This story was originally published April 2, 2021 at 5:30 AM.