Should this Seattle officer have hit this woman?

In 2014, a Seattle police officer punched a young woman while she was handcuffed in the back of his patrol car. A year and a half later, people are still asking: Should he have hit her?

Seattle Police Officer Adley Shepherd was attempting to arrest Miyekko Durden-Bosley, then 23, after someone called 911 to report a disturbance on a South Seattle street. Patrol car dash cameras kept a record of the interaction. It shows a man yelling and screaming in the street while officers talk to Durden-Bosley.

Officers then attempt to arrest Durden-Bosley for making a threat to another person. The video shows the young woman kick Officer Shepherd while she is being placed in the back of a patrol car. Shepherd retaliated with a punch to the face.

That action has been debated ever since, as it was by KIRO Radio’s Ron and Don after news broke that federal prosecutors will not pursue charges against the officer.

The United States Attorney’s Office evaluated the case to determine if there were any civil rights violations, and concluded that there was not enough evidence to support a prosecutable violation. King County prosecutors also refused to file charges against Shepherd. The Seattle Police Department is continuing its own internal investigation into the incident.

Durden-Bosley has also filed a lawsuit against the officer. Shepherd has been on paid administrative leave ever since.

Still, Ron and Don were at odds over the video.

“She was out in the middle of the road, there was another gentleman out in the middle of the road, it was the middle of the night and they were shouting at each other,” Don said.

Officers then attempted to arrest Durden-Bosley for making a threat to another person.

“They said she was intoxicated,” Ron said. “She doesn’t sound flat out drunk to me. Maybe she had a drink or two. But she was repeating herself a lot.”

“She does not want to get in the patrol car. She feels like she did not make a threat. The officer is trying to get her into the patrol car. He just kind of shoves her into the back of the car …” he said.

“Hang on, that’s not what I saw,” Don interjected. “He tried to get her in the car, tried to get her in the car, get in the car, get in the car … and she won’t get in the car.”

Then the blows came.

“She kicks him in the jaw. And he immediately comes through the door and punches her in the face,” Ron said. “Bosley’s orbital bone was fractured. She was already in handcuffs. Afterward she continues to argue and struggle. Officer Shepherd holds her down and appears to be in pain.”

For Ron, it was a common 911 call that police see &#8212 a domestic dispute creating a public nuisance. He gets hung up on the fact that it is a case of a large, male police officer, and a small woman. And Ron also doesn’t understand why the officers were focused on Durden-Bosley, when the video also shows a man in the middle of the street who continues to scream and yell.

“It just seems that she is a small woman that does not want to be arrested,” Ron said. “The man who was involved was more verbally active, I thought, than the woman was. If I was to make an arrest, me personally, I would probably lean toward the guy.”

Don thinks that view is sexist.

“She is within her rights to ask him what she is charged with,” Ron said, noting that he read through Washington’s laws for making arrests. “She did ask why she was being arrested, and he sort of mumbled along for a minute and then said, ‘ugh, you made a threat.'”

Don argues otherwise and favors the police officer’s side of the issue. Don believes that when a person strikes a police officer, it’s game over for them.

“He couldn’t talk,” Don said. “She was on a loop the whole entire time.”

“She says in the tape that she didn’t kick him. Then she admits later on that she did kick him, but the only reason she did was because he hit her first. But it’s very clear on the tape that she kicked him, and that’s when he popped her,” he said. “And you know what? He should have popped her.”