Officer Pulls Teen Off Train, Arrests Her For Allegedly Having Her Foot On Seat
A10-minute video shared by Brock Bryan on Facebook shows the arrest of 18-year-old Bethany Renee Nava by a LAPD Sergeant. The same officer is now under a use-of-force investigation stemming from the Monday afternoon incident.
Nava was on the Red Line at the Westlake/MacArthur Park station with her foot on the edge of a train seat. The video shows the officer signaling Nava to get out of her seat, saying: “I already told you what to do and you didn’t. You disobeyed me. You’re getting off the train.” He then grabbed her arm and started pulling her out of the train.
Nava replies: “I paid to be on this train. Stop,” adding an expletive aimed at the officer.
She then grabbed a pole and tried grabbing her belongings from her seat. However, the sergeant pulled her out of the train and pinned her against a wall and put her hands behind her back.
Bryan follows the two, and can be heard pleading with the officer not to arrest Nava. He says, “Over her foot on the train? That’s so ridiculous. That’s really abuse of power, officer. She wasn’t blocking anybody else from sitting down.”
When Nava tells the officer her name, another bystander tells her not to give her name, and the sergeant tells the bystander: “You’re next, buddy. You don’t get to tell me what to do.”
As the incident unfolds, 22-year-old Selina Lechuga can be heard hurling expletives at the sergeant. By this time, a crowd is slowly gathering to watch.
Lechuga shouts back, “You’re going to take her to jail for putting her foot on the bus? Are you f—ing kidding me? You really have nothing to do.”
When Nava asks why she was arrested for putting her foot on the seat, the sergeant replies that it is against the rules.
Another train then pulls up and more officers disembark. Nava is taken into custody by one officer, and Lechuga is cuffed by two more officers. As she is taken away, she spits at one of them – assumedly the original sergeant.
She is heard saying, “This is racism. This is what we are: 2018, motherf—ers like this want to just try to act like they can do whatever they want. F— you guys.”
Nava was booked for being loud and boisterous on the train. She was released and ordered to appear back in court. Lechuga was booked on suspicion of battery on a police officer and her bail was set at $20,000.
Deputy Chief Bob Green stated that the department launched a use-of-force investigation after receiving complaints about the incident. He told LA Times that police were doing “a lot of code-of-conduct work on the Metro trains, and it has a lot of public support from riders.”
Nava’s mother stated that her daughter had been taken to hospital with a sprained wrist and come contusions after the incident.