Viral social-media post questions Durham police officers' use of force

Durham -- City officials want to know how a weekend crash investigation led to a woman being forced to the ground and arrested in front of her 2-year-old son.

A Facebook post described what happened after a car driven by Madeline Massey was hit by two cars on U.S. 15-501 around 11 a.m. Saturday. The three drivers pulled over to the side of the road. One car left, but the second, which included passengers UNC students Sierra Dunne and Suad Jabr, stayed and waited for police.

“One cop came, and after about 15 minutes, we had at least 10 law enforcement, mostly Durham police there to handle 5 people and a baby,” Dunne said in the post shared 1,300 times by Tuesday afternoon. “They forced a young black woman involved in the wreck to the ground (it supposedly took 2 large male cops to overpower a petite woman) and arrested her for drunk driving WITHOUT doing any tests first, even though it was her car who was hit by someone else.”

“(Madeline) Massey was arrested for no reason and her child was taken from her today after another car hit her and left the scene early,” Dunne’s post said. “She was hit twice by other cars and the Durham police violently arrested her for it.”

Read more here: http://www.heraldsun.com/news/local/counties/durham-county/article145143069.html