LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — An Arkansas teenager is facing a felony after a trooper used a PIT Maneuver on her as she was rushing her mom to the hospital, KATV reported.
Tahirah Hart and her 18-year-old twin daughters were shocked and scared, and the whole thing was captured on a dashboard camera.
One month ago, Hart had surgery and was discharged.
But just hours later, she started to feel unusual pain and felt like she needed to go back to the hospital.
“My chest started hurting real bad, and it started feeling like it was tightening up, so I told my kids ‘come on, let’s go, take me back to the emergency room,'” Hart said.
Her symptoms worsened along the drive.
“While we was on our way, my left arm went numb,” Hart said. “I had a shooting pain, and my left hand went numb and I told my baby Kenochia to hurry up and get me there.”
Racing against the clock, her daughters, Kenochia and Keochia Moss, headed to Baptist Hospital in Little Rock, speeding on Interstate 630 with hazard lights flashing.
Initially, Little Rock police began to pursue the family, but soon they caught the attention of Arkansas State Police trooper Montae Hernandez.
As they exited on Baptist Health Drive, Hart told her daughter to pull over for the police, but before she could, the trooper initiated a PIT Maneuver and the vehicles collided. A PIT Maneuver is a pursuit tactic in which a pursuing vehicle forces a fleeing vehicle to turn sideways, causing the driver to lose control and stop.
“I said ‘slow down and pull over so the police can come beside us and direct us there,'” Hart said. “Next thing I know, we got hit.”
“Please help my mama, please help my mama, please help my mama. She just got out of the hospital, she had surgery,” Hart’s daughter can be heard saying on the dashcam footage.
Kenochia is then handcuffed.
She said it all happened so fast.
“I’m thinking I hit somebody, then the car turned around, I just saw a whole bunch of guns and flashlights pointed at me,” Kenochia said. “He’s screaming get out of the car, I don’t know if I should get out of the car, I don’t know if I should stay in the car. I just put my hands up and I was like, ‘just help my mama.’ I was shaking, like, I felt like I couldn’t even walk. I was so scared. I just closed my eyes, got out the car, still had my hands up and just walked to where they could see me. I just closed my eyes, because I didn’t know if they was going to kill me, I didn’t know what they was going to do.”
Eventually, Kenochia was uncuffed and allowed to take her mother to the emergency room.
But, trooper Hernandez wrote her a ticket for fleeing, a felony offense.
“I’m just being apologetic, scared, I’m 18 years old, I don’t know what to do, I’ve never been in this position, never thinking I’m going to get hit by a state trooper,” Kenochia said. “I’m thinking they’re going to help us, no help. It’s just sad.”
On Monday, Kenochia Moss pleaded not guilty in North Little Rock district court.
Her trial is set for Sept. 6.
In the police report, trooper Montae Hernandez said he performed the PIT Maneuver due to the frequent vehicle and pedestrian traffic near the hospital.
Arkansas State Police policy on PIT Maneuvers allows for officers to utilize this use of force, when it’s objectively reasonable based on the circumstances.
