There are few cases that depict how willing Salt Lake City PD is to brutalize homeless folks as much as the attack on Agnes Martinez.
Ms. Martinez, who was living out of her car, is a 5' 2" woman who didn't want to be arrested for simply trying to survive.
Her refusal to relax her arm when being slammed against her car, which had been illegally searched, was enough for SLCPD officers Lane Wolfenbarger and Paul Mullenax to justify slamming her to the ground so hard her leg shattered.
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They then piled onto her with Wolfenbarger landing above Ms. Martinez's left knee, and Mullenax coming down below it.
Both Mullenax and Wolfenbarger reported hearing Ms. Martinez's leg break/crack and knowing that they had broken her leg. Ms. Martinez screamed in pain and despite her inability to move, let alone "flee", was still placed in handcuffs.
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After multiple surgeries and attempts to save her leg, doctors eventually concluded the limb could not be preserved. On September 27 doctors performed a through-the-knee amputation and then on the 29th performed an above the knee amputation.
On 8-30-2024 SLCPD released the bodycam footage and a press release stating "any assumptions, including any conclusions or correlations between the amputation and the officers’ encounter, would be premature and potentially misleading."
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@AlliFlowers @copdb Too true!