A police officer was placed on administrative leave after a video captured him punching a woman in the throat during an arrest at a New York Walmart, WSYR reported. 

The scuffle occurred on July 4 when officers were dispatched to the store in East Syracuse after two women were fighting and using pepper spray. 

“While in route officers were advised that the employees were being threatened, struck in the face, and the customers had also been pepper-sprayed by the same two suspects,” Public Information Officer Lt. Jerry Pace said, according to CBS Albany.

“Conclusions about whether the actions of the officers are consistent with department policies and the law will not be made until all the facts are known and the investigation is complete,” Pace said in a Facebook video recounting the incident. 

The footage shows DeWitt police officers Rory Spain and Corey Buyck attempting to apprehend two women, 26-year-old Tyreana Edmonds and her sister, 22-year-old Tajenik Byrd, who said that she was pregnant. Buyck is seen cuffing Byrd and swinging her to the ground, while Spain and Edmonds engage in a physical altercation, ending with him striking Edmonds in the throat after she was accused of trying to bite him.  

Edmonds was charged with second-degree attempted assault of a police officer, resisting arrest, fourth-degree criminal assault, disorderly conduct, second-degree harassment and obstruction of governmental administration. Byrd was charged with third-degree assault, endangering the welfare of a child, resisting arrest, possession of a noxious material and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon.

Following the incident, members of Rebirth SYR, an organization that advocates for change in police interactions with Black and brown people, gathered outside the DeWitt Police Department. 

“Say if that cop was off duty and he did that, he would be going to jail. So we’re saying that police are above the law and that’s not fair,” Rebirth SYR co-founder Hasahn Bloodworth said, according to Spectrum News. “Police are not above the law.”

Bloodworth also noted that the family of both women involved plan to meet with lawyers to discuss how to proceed.

The two women were released and are expected to make desk appearances.