North Carolina Officer Charged With Assault After Video Shows Him Punching Black Woman During Arrest
A 22-year-old police officer in Shelby, North Carolina, has been charged with assault and fired after a home security camera recorded him repeatedly punching a Black woman during an arrest last Friday. The officer, Karson Hyder, who is White, surrendered to the Cleveland County Detention Center and was released on a $10,000 bond Monday, according to the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. Hyder faces a charge of assault inflicting serious injury.
The video, which went viral on social media, shows Hyder wrestling the woman to the ground and striking her multiple times in the face and upper body. According to the arrest warrant, Hyder “did assault and strike (the woman) by grabbing (her) by the arm, pushing her to the ground and striking her in the face with a closed fist, thereby inflicting serious injury, possible broken nose and busted lip.” The woman, identified by her father as 34-year-old Gregory Moore’s daughter, can be heard on the recording saying she does not have a warrant and repeatedly asking what is happening. She later requested mental health care, saying she had been off her medication, and asked officers to call her father.
Hyder was fired after an administrative investigation, Shelby Police Chief Brad Fraser said Saturday. “While this incident does not reflect the values of the Shelby Police Department, it does reinforce the importance of holding ourselves to the highest standards of conduct,” Fraser said in a news conference. The police department has turned over its findings to the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation for an independent criminal review.
The woman was also charged with breaking and entering, resisting a public officer, and assault on a government official or employee, according to a warrant issued Friday. However, her attorney, Ronald Haynes Jr., confirmed Monday that the resisting and assault charges have been dropped, though the breaking and entering charge remains pending. The arrest warrant alleges the woman unlawfully entered a building and then resisted arrest, and that she assaulted Hyder by grabbing and ripping his uniform. Hyder had a previous encounter with the same woman, according to court records, where he was a complainant in a case last August involving similar charges.
The incident has reignited tensions in Shelby, a small city near the South Carolina border, where protesters gathered Friday at the police department waving signs such as “Protect our women” and “Chief Fraser, do your job.” The demonstration echoed years of national scrutiny over police violence against African Americans, particularly since the murder of George Floyd in 2020. In North Carolina, similar protests followed the police killings of Darryl Tyree Williams and Andrew Brown Jr.
The woman’s family has retained civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who on Tuesday called for prosecutors to upgrade Hyder’s charge from simple assault to assault with serious bodily injury, citing medical records showing a fractured nose, black eyes, and swollen lips. “We’re going to present the medical records to the state’s attorney and ask them to increase the charges,” Crump said.
Michael Alcazar, a retired NYPD detective and adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, reviewed the video and told CNN the officer “employed force far beyond what the situation required.” He noted that Hyder continued punching the woman even after a second officer arrived, which “appears to violate basic use-of-force principles.”
The homeowner whose camera captured the incident said they initially thought the commotion was children playing. After reviewing the footage, they posted it online, leading to widespread outrage. The woman’s father, Gregory Moore, expressed anguish over the assault, saying his daughter suffers from mental health and substance abuse issues. “Her mind just won’t let her sit down,” Moore said. “She walks around like she has no place to go. And the man must have thought she really didn’t have a family, that nobody loves her.” He added that his daughter is now in a safe place and resting but has been left scarred: “When she sees a police officer, that’s what she’s going to think about … so she ain’t going to be able to trust no man, no police officer, nothing anymore.”
The attack has deepened distrust between the African American community and law enforcement, Haynes said. “Justice will be served when Mr. Hyder is prosecuted, the Shelby Police Department extends a public apology to (his client) and family, and she is monetarily compensated for her pain and suffering.”
Shelby City Manager Justin Merritt acknowledged the damage in a Saturday news conference: “While yesterday’s incident was disturbing and is still raw and difficult to understand, today marks the beginning of a path forward to repair the damage that has been done. This is a path that we must walk together, hand in hand, unified with the common goal of understanding, supporting each other and strengthening the fabric of a community we all hold so dear.”
As the legal process unfolds, the case underscores ongoing debates about police accountability, mental health response, and racial justice in the United States.