Black Florida Woman Allegedly Yanked Out of Vehicle Over Window Tint Violation, Accuses Atlanta Police of Excessive Force

Ebony Thomas said she had no idea why Atlanta police were pulling her over during a Jan. 26 traffic stop in southeast Atlanta. She was even more confused when the officer demanded she unlock the door.

Thomas turned on her cellphone video to capture their interaction.

“Step out the car,” the officer tells Thomas, who lives in Florida.

She resists.

“If I tell you again, I am going to pull your a– out of the f—ing car,” the officer warns her.

She declines, later telling Fox 5 in Atlanta she was afraid to move because she feared being shot.

“The way he is so aggressive, I am like, ‘What’s going on? What just happened?; ” Thomas said. “He yanks my seatbelt off and pulled me out the car. I had on silver flip-flops. The shoes were in the driver’s side on the floor, that is just how hard he pulled me.”

The officer tells a different story, saying in the incident report that Thomas “immediately became upset and defensive” when he approached her car for the window tint violation.

“Ms. Thomas refused to hand me her license multiple times called me a monkey
and stated that she would give it to me,” wrote the officer, adding he could smell “the odor of marijuana” coming from her vehicle.

He said he repeatedly asked her to exit the vehicle, and she refused.

Thomas’ Mercedes had a window tint allowing just nine percent of light, well below Georgia’s legal limit of 34 percent, the officer wrote. She was also charged with obstructing an officer, a misdemeanor.

Thomas and her friend were handcuffed as the officer searched her 2021 Mercedes CLA. The male passenger admitted to smoking pot before Thomas picked her up, she said, though he was not arrested.

The 43-year-old grandmother insists she had done nothing illegal. A female police recruit on the scene backed her up, Thomas said.

“She’s like, ‘You are right. You didn’t do nothing,’” Thomas said. “I said, ‘You are admitting I did nothing, but I am still being arrested and detained?’”

The officer later released the male passenger and allowed him to go, but Thomas went straight to the Fulton County Jail. 

On the way there, Thomas said she heard the officer say, “I’m taking her to jail because her mouth is slick.”

Thomas said she spent $3,700 to bond out of jail.

Atlanta police said they are reviewing the incident. Thomas has filed a complaint with the Internal Affairs division alleging excessive force.