On November 29, 2024, Shandela Simmons posted a video on Facebook that has now garnered 196,000 views, thousands of shares, and hundreds of comments. The video shows Shandela being pulled from a car and arrested by Beaufort police. As her friend and passenger continue to video, the viewer catches a glimpse of a man already on the ground being arrested, and ultimately the woman taking the video also being arrested. The video is less than a minute and does not look good for the Beaufort Police Department. In the days since the video was posted, rumors of officers being suspended have fueled the concerns that the incident may not have been handled appropriately.
Beaufort Police Department prides themselves on their relationship with the community, and for good reason. The department has put a lot of effort and resources into fostering a positive rapport with the citizens of the City of Beaufort, and they have a lot of evidence to support that it has been working. Most recently favorable statistics were shared in the 2024 fall edition of the city’s bi-annual newsletter. Additionally, the Beaufort Police Department did not face the same scrutiny many other law enforcement agencies faced during the civil unrest and defund the police campaigns that occurred around the country in the last several years.
Shandela’s video, however, put that trusting relationship to the test because of the depictions of the violent, angry treatment of Shandela and her friends. Other than a statement on November 30 acknowledging the video and promising an investigation, the police department did not have much to say about the incident leaving Shandela’s video to do the talking for many days.
After the incident, Beaufort Insider’s sources started sharing that there was much more to the story than just what was in Shandela’s video. Beaufort Insider also reached out to Shandela directly and exchanged a few messages with her, but after she said that she needed to consult her lawyer before answering any questions, we did not hear back from her again.
On December 11, Beaufort Police Department put out a statement providing a synopsis of the November 28 event and concluding, “A thorough review of this incident confirmed that all charges and elements of the crimes were present, and the charges were lawful.” The police department stated that the incident resulted in four arrests, the first a DUI resulting from a traffic stop, the second the passenger in the vehicle for disrupting the first arrest. In the meantime, Shandela and her passenger arrived to pick up the car that had been pulled over. According to the police department’s statement, Shandela assaulted the tow truck driver that had arrived to tow the vehicle and then attempted to flee in her car. That is when the viral video started as Shandela was being pulled from the vehicle and arrested for the assault of the tow truck. Shandela’s passenger got caught up in the chaos of the scene while trying to document the incident and became the fourth person arrested.
In the couple of days before Beaufort Police Department released their December 11 statement, Beaufort Insider started hearing from multiple sources that the officers involved in the November 28 incident were suspended. The Police Department’s statement seems to corroborate this with its last sentence: “This review further resulted in training, retraining, and disciplinary measures.”
Ultimately, the police department’s December 11 statement answers some questions, but intensifies others. The majority of comments on Facebook are calling for the Beaufort Police to release body cam footage of the incident so that the full incident can be viewed and judged by the public. There are also a few comments thanking the police department for their efforts. Here are a few of the comments from Facebook:
It does not seem that the department’s December 11 statement has done much to quell the questions and demands for transparency coming from the public. The “disciplinary actions” and rumors of suspensions do not seem to match up with the ‘everything was done correctly’ and ‘we got the criminals’ tone of the statement. If the police department stands behind the actions of their officers, then why would they be “disciplined”? If there’s nothing to hide, then why don’t they release the body cam footage and any other documentation that proves they did the right thing?
Beaufort Insider submitted a FOIA to the Beaufort Police department on December 2 requesting the following information from the November 28 incident depicted in Shandela’s video:
- 911 Calls
- CAD Reports
- Uniformed Crime Reports
- Report attachments (i.e. use of force and display of weapons paperwork)
- Arrest records
- In car camera footage
- Body cam footage
Beaufort Insider will keep our readers informed as this story continues to unfold.
The fact that the officers were willing to allow an acquaintance to pick up the DUI-related vehicle, rather than impound it, certainly speaks to their mindset surrounding the stop.