In a X post on March 11, 2026, a civil rights attorney accused the Hurst Police Department of excessive force. The department said the allegations are unfounded.
Lee Merritt on X
Dallas civil rights attorney Lee Merritt is calling out the Hurst Police Department over allegations of racial profiling and use of excessive force when a mother was arrested during a traffic stop in January.
But the Police Department says an internal affairs investigation determined the claims of excessive force were unfounded.
Merritt posted a video from the vehicle’s dashboard on X showing the moments leading up to the Jan. 16 arrest, after the woman had been pulled over for speeding. The video has 1.2 million views on X. Merritt said the driver planned to contest the citation in court.
This mother was traveling through Hurst with her 15-year-old son in the passenger seat when she was pulled over and accused of speeding. She planned to contest the claim in court but still provided her license, as required by law. She declined to take the paper receipt of the… pic.twitter.com/JnUAJPBk11
— Lee Merritt (@LeeMerrittesq) March 11, 2026
The woman, who is Black, “declined to take receipt of the citation, protesting what she believed was racial profiling,” according to Merritt. In the video, the woman is seen tossing the ticket out of the window. The officer tells her that’s littering and asks her to step out of the car. She refuses, and the officer opens the car door and grabs her arm. She says he’s holding her “forcibly” and “holding me too tight.”
Shortly, the officer tells the woman she is under arrest and asks her to get out of the car. She says she won’t get out until his supervisor arrives. About a minute later, the officer reaches in the vehicle, pulls the woman out and takes her to the ground.
Her 15-year-old son can be heard in the background pleading with his mom and the officer to stop.
An excessive force complaint was filed on Jan. 20, according to the Police Department. The investigation was closed after authorities determined the woman’s claims were unfounded, the department said.
“We are aware of the community concern about this situation, and we are committed to remaining transparent,” the department said.
Merritt stated in his post that the mother was traveling through Hurst with her 15-year-old son in the passenger’s seat when she was pulled over and accused of speeding.
“She planned to contest the claim in court but still provided her license, as required by law,” he wrote.
Merritt wrote that the officer could have issued a second citation for littering or walked away since the citation had already been issued.
“Instead, he chose to snatch this mother out of her vehicle in front of her child, slam her to the ground, seriously injure her, and take her to jail … where she was ultimately issued a citation and then released to the hospital for treatment of the injuries caused during the arrest,” he wrote.
Hurst police stated the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office is investigating the charges related to the traffic stop.
The Texas Municipal Police Association, which is representing the officer who made the traffic stop, accused Merritt of posting a “false narrative.”
“If your client had complied with the law instead of resisting arrest, there would have been no bruising and no injuries,” TMPA wrote in a social media post. “That’s on her. Instead of telling his client to obey the law, Lee Merritt jumped on social media to push a racial narrative.”
Merritt represented the family of Atatiana Jefferson, a 28-year-old Black woman who was fatally shot in her mother’s Fort Worth home by a police officer in 2019.
In a Facebook post, Merritt called for residents to sign up for public comment at the next Hurst City Council meeting, at 6:30 p.m. March 24, to discuss the incident.
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This story was originally published March 12, 2026 at 4:25 PM.
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With my guide dog Freddie, I keep tabs on growth, economic development and other issues in Northeast Tarrant cities and other communities near Fort Worth. I’ve been a reporter at the Star-Telegram for 34 years.