Video recorded by a 15-year-old girl who witnessed the arrest of a young woman has prompted an investigation into the conduct of two Alaska state troopers.
In footage posted April 29 to YouTube -- entitled "Young woman being arrested for nothing" -- Skyler Irene Waite argues with a pair of officers over a small amount of marijuana they spotted when responding to a Kodiak home for a medical emergency.
The two troopers, Brian Mitchell and Boyd Branch, asked Waite about the weed, but the 20-year-old refused to answer questions, KTVA reports.
The 11-minute, 20-second clip shows the officers and Waite become agitated as they quarrel over the drugs, all while reruns of eating challenge reality show "Man v. Food" play in the background.
“Here's what I know,” Mitchell says. “I know now that you're a drug abuser and you're in denial about it.”
“You don’t know that,” Waite replies repeatedly.
“I do,” says Mitchell, adding, “Denial, it's not just a river in Egypt.”
The YouTube video has collected nearly 3,000 comments and 150,000 views in just over a week.
The scene became physical when Waite, who says she was reaching for the door, brought her arm closer to one of the troopers.
"Out of the corner of my eye I saw her reaching her left arm around me which I considered a prelude to a physical assault," Mitchell wrote in his affidavit, according to the Anchorage Daily News. "I immediately shoved her away to create a distance between us."
As the troopers struggled to handcuff her, Waite repeatedly screamed, "What am I being arrested for?" She is taken outside shoeless to the police vehicle and forced inside.
Col. Keith Mallard, head of the Alaska State Troopers, said that the case is under review by the Office of Professional Standards.
"As is our practice, anytime we receive a complaint no matter how small or egregious, we take them very seriously, looking into the totality of the event thoroughly to determine the proper course of action," he said in a statement.
Waite is charged with fourth-degree assault on a police officer, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, according to court records. She was released on $100 bail.
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