By Wayne K. Roustan
Sun Sentinel
MIAMI — A Miami-Dade police officer was relieved of duty after video showed him punching a woman at Miami International Airport.
The incident happened Wednesday when the woman and the officer got into a dispute.
At one point, the woman went face to face with the officer and started yelling: “You acting like you white when you really Black...what you want to do?”
The officer is seen taking a step back before punching her directly in the face with a closed fist and then pushing her once she was on the ground.
“She head-butted me,” the officer is heard saying.
The woman was handcuffed by officers that had been standing nearby.
“I am shocked and angered by a body cam video that I just saw involving one of our officers,” Miami-Dade Police Director Alfredo Ramirez tweeted Wednesday night. “I’ve immediately initiated an investigation and ordered that the involved officers be relieved of duty.”
He later clarified that only the officer seen hitting the woman has been relieved of duty.
“This will not stand and I assure our community that any officer acting in this vain will be held to account,” Ramirez added in a statement. “I have also just spoken to our State Attorney and asked that her office immediately become involved in the investigation.”
The officer’s name has not been released.
The video was recorded and posted to Twitter by South Florida filmmaker Billy Corben.
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