Bystander In Karen Garner Arrest Recognized As Only One Who ‘did The Right Thing’

On June 26, 2020 — the day 73-year-old Karen Garner was forcibly arrest­ed by Loveland police offi­cers — Reidesel Mendoza was “the sole per­son that did the right thing.”

Mendoza had stopped his car to con­front the offi­cers arrest­ing Garner because “the way they were han­dling that sit­u­a­tion was not the right way,” he said in an inter­view Saturday, after receiv­ing a cit­i­zen­ship award for his actions that day.

“I tried to do what was right,” Mendoza said.

Garner — who has demen­tia — was accused of leav­ing Walmart that day with­out pay­ing for $13.88 worth of mer­chan­dise, but staff stop­per her and retrieved the items before she left. Garner was walk­ing home when offi­cer Austin Hopp stopped her. About 30 sec­onds after Hopp got out of his car, he forced Garner to the ground and tried to arrest her.

Another offi­cer — Daria Jalali — arrived short­ly after to help Hopp restrain Garner. Sgt. Philip Metzler arrived after the two offi­cers got Garner in one of their patrol cars.

Mendoza saw how the offi­cers were treat­ing Garner and decid­ed he need­ed to intervene.

“Do you have to use that much aggres­sion,” Mendoza could be heard say­ing to Hopp in Hopp’s body cam­era footage, released to the pub­lic by an attor­ney who rep­re­sent­ed Garner’s fam­i­ly in a civ­il law­suit filed against the city.

Hopp then told him to “get out of here, this is not your busi­ness,” and fur­ther explained, “this is what hap­pens when you fight the police.”

Later, in a con­ver­sa­tion between Mendoza and Metzler on the scene cap­tured on Metzler’s body cam­era footage, Mendoza said, ““when you see a per­son walk­ing and the next thing you see is a cop throw­ing them to the ground with­out her using force or noth­ing, what’s going to be your reaction?”

ORIGINAL STORY BELOW IN LINK

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“I’m not sure but usu­al­ly I would think that the police have a rea­son to arrest her,” Metzler replied and repeat­ed­ly told Mendoza he didn’t have all the infor­ma­tion so he can’t judge the offi­cers’ actions.

“You may think you’re defend­ing her but she’s the one that com­mit­ted a crime,” Metzler said in the body cam­era footage.

Garner had her shoul­der dis­lo­cat­ed and arm frac­tured dur­ing the arrest, accord­ing to a civ­il law­suit set­tled by the city with Garner’s fam­i­ly by the city for $3 million. 

Hopp and Jalali were both crim­i­nal­ly charged for their actions in this inci­dent. Hopp was sen­tenced to five years in prison for sec­ond-degree assault, and Jalali was sen­tenced to 45 days in jail and three years of pro­ba­tion for fail­ing to intervene.

In addi­tion to Hopp and Jalali, Metzler and com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice offi­cer Tyler Blackett resigned from the depart­ment. Another offi­cer, Paul Ashe, was fired as part of the inves­ti­ga­tion into offi­cers’ actions dur­ing and after Garner’s arrest, but is suing the depart­ment for wrong­ful ter­mi­na­tion.

‘Everybody has the right to speak up’

Mendoza was com­mend­ed for inter­ven­ing in Garner’s arrest dur­ing Loveland’s Latine Heritage Month Celebration at Foote Lagoon on Saturday, by being pre­sent­ed a cit­i­zen­ship award.

“Everybody has the right to speak up,” Mendoza said after being pre­sent­ed the award. “… If you see some­thing that is not right, you have the right to speak. That can change some­one else’s life.”

The award was pre­sent­ed in part by the Community Trust Commission, which was formed by the Loveland city coun­cil to aide in rebuild­ing trust with the com­mu­ni­ty and its police department.

Interim Loveland Police Chief Eric Stewart applaud­ed Mendoza’s courage in step­ping up that day, and said the pub­lic plays in key role in suc­cess­ful polic­ing, ref­er­enc­ing one of Robert Peel’s — who he said is con­sid­ered the father of mod­ern polic­ing — prin­ci­ples: “The pub­lic are the police and the police are the public.”

“Clearly we can’t police with­out the pub­lic. We cer­tain­ly didn’t do a great job that day,” Stewart said. “… I’m sor­ry we let you down that day.”

Loveland Mayor Jacki Marsh thanked Mendoza for over­com­ing fear to do the right thing in inter­ven­ing, some­thing not every­one would do in a sim­i­lar situation.

“You have my heart­felt appre­ci­a­tion and admi­ra­tion,” Marsh said to Mendoza. “… I can­not thank you enough, for in that hor­ri­ble day, you were the ray of hope, the ray of sun­shine for Karen Garner. You were the sole per­son that did the right thing that day.”

This arti­cle orig­i­nal­ly appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Man who inter­vened in Loveland Karen Garner arrest awarded