TikToker who said she was held at gunpoint by Arlington police preparing to sue department
A woman who posted TikTok videos accusing Arlington police of civil rights violations and excessive use of force is getting ready to sue the department and a motel in the city, she and her attorney told the Star-Telegram.
Dawnyale Shanks, a TikToker who said police detained her at gunpoint at a Super 8 Motel, posted a video to TikTok March 18 of an interaction with officers. She said she was held “execution style” while police searched her room for a male armed robbery suspect they mistakenly believed to be there.
Police said the videos Shanks posted are missing vital context.
They said they believed after watching surveillance video that the suspect in an armed robbery at a convenience store in the 2700 block of East Abram Street went to the nearby motel after the crime.
When officers went to the motel to look for him, a motel employee directed them to a specific room on the second floor and said he might be inside, according to police.
Officers went to that room and, because they believed the suspect was armed, approached it with their weapons drawn “for their own safety and the safety of other people at the motel,” police said in an emailed statement to the Star-Telegram.
Blerim Elmazi, a lawyer representing Shanks, said concern for safety was not a good enough reason to go to the door in what Shanks called “full battle rattle” in one of her subsequent TikTok videos. Police confirmed they had guns drawn, and had at least one ballistics shield and a megaphone.
“They know that this is the easiest way for the public to just sweep this whole incident under the rug,” Elmazi said. “Anytime a problematic situation occurs, they want to make it disappear under that excuse of fear for their safety.”
Shanks said she was in Arlington because she was moving to the city to try to start a new career in photography and videography. It was her first night in Arlington, she said.
“For that to be my welcome, that’s unfortunate,” Shanks said.
Shanks and her attorney said they are conducting their own investigation into the incident and are planning to file lawsuits within the next four weeks against Arlington police and the motel employee who directed them to the room. The employee, her attorney said, was negligent in telling police to go there.
Police have said body-worn camera footage of the incident shows officers acted appropriately and did not violate any department policy. Videos taken after the incident and posted to Shanks’ TikTok account are misleading because they lack context, according to a statement from police.
Viral TikTok video
The video immediately following the events starts with Shanks speaking with the patrol sergeant in the hotel lobby. It has been viewed more than 1 million times across TikTok and Twitter, according to view counts on two posts found on those platforms.
“So this is a learning curve for you?” Shanks asks at the start of the video. “Putting guns to an innocent person’s back? That’s a learning curve?”
The patrol sergeant, who has not been identified, tells Shanks she didn’t say it was a learning curve but “every call, there is something to learn.”
Police said body-camera footage shows that before the start of the TikTok video the sergeant “was trying to explain that officers learn from every incident they respond to.”
“That’s a learning curve,” Shanks says in the TikTok video, her voice shaky. “You put guns to my face. That’s a learning curve for you? That’s a learning curve? You put guns to my back. That’s a learning curve? I could have died. And that’s a ... learning curve to you?”
Shanks repeats that as another woman, who police said was her mother, encourages her to calm down. Some on social media have commented that the person telling Shanks to calm down is the sergeant. The first time the person says, “You gotta calm down, baby,” the sergeant is clearly in the video and is not speaking.
The video then cuts to footage of police in another room, with one officer visible in the doorway.
“Why are you wiping the surveillance video?” Shanks asks in this clip.
“Ma’am, I can’t elaborate on our investigation,” the officer says.
“Why are you wiping the surveillance video?” she asks again.
The officer replies, saying either “Watching” or “Watch it.”
“We’re not allowed to wipe it,” the officer says.
“I just heard you say until you finish wiping the surveillance video,” Shanks says in the TikTok clip.
“You misheard,” the officer replies before speaking into his radio.
Police said in their statement that body-camera footage shows the officer in this clip was speaking to someone else before the recording on TikTok started and said he needed to finish watching the surveillance video and that Shanks misheard that as “wiping.”
Police said that, after a preliminary review, “we do not believe any officers violated department policies at this time.”
Shanks started a GoFundMe after the videos were posted, telling people she was raising money to hire an attorney. As of Tuesday, the fundraiser had garnered more than $5,800 toward Shanks’ goal of $50,000.