SOUTH WHITLEY, Ind. (WOWO) —The actions of a South Whitley police officer are under review after a January incident that was caught on video. In that video, Officer Brian Schimmel is shown throwing 18-year-old Vivian Augustus, a senior at Columbia City Hight School, to the ground, about 90 seconds into a traffic stop.
Schimmel says Augustus was speeding and had a headlight out. In his report he says she didn’t produce identification, either.
This incident happened on January 24th, of this year. Over the weekend, after the video started circulating, South Whitley police posted a statement by the town attorney, Greggory Hockenmeyer was quoted as saying that “It is a crime to not identify yourself” but that the officer’s conduct is being reviewed.
15 comments
The town of South Whitley has made another statement in support of the officer, highlighting that they were concerned with me being allowed to talk to my daughter at the police car.
Brent, I hope and Pray that you and your daughter receive proper justice…looks like the whole town of Whitley are full of cowards for not doing the right thing. Surely a good lawyer could win this case for your daughter…best of luck.
I applaud Officer Schimmel’s actions and his military service. Thank you.
I served 23 years in the Military and can safely say that someone who blatantly lied and abused a young girl has no place in the Military or behind a badge… No thank you!
shame on you gus , you and that ego filled rotten cop that would hurt a little girl for having a bad headlight and how many times have you been 7 over the limit , honestly … shame on you guys
That officer committed a crime. He acted cowardly and has a temper problem, not fit to be a cop
Military service to who, the RUSSIANS???
No wait, the GERMANS!!
Gus, what are you his boyfriend or something?
Gus, you applaud a grown man slamming a high-school gril to the ground, I think someone needs to check on your family to make sure you are not abusing them, what a coward!
Gus Jones, people like you supporting a uniform and turning a blind eye to this level of abuse of power is the real problem. please review your thought process.
You are an idiot.
In any situation like this, the officer is in a position of power and needs to be the one who maintains the “serve and protect” creed. He appears to use his position to abuse the girl. 7 miles/headliight. Please. If this were the only issues, could this not have been handled better with a ” hey slow down and your light is out”. Seems like he lost his cool and needed to show his dominance…to a little 18 year old girl.
Army service has nothing to do with this incident. Army trains you to kill your enemies. Police serve and protect the public.
What a coward… I mean, I don’t have a lot of respect for the thugs in blue, but this was completely uncalled for. So what happens next, he gets a promotion, qualified immunity, and when the lawsuit finally hits, he moves to the next county and starts another reign of terror? I keep saying, ‘these are top-down issues’ and it starts with the mayor, the city council, and the voters, the people who put the wrong people in power, to make the worst decisions, hiring the lowest caliber of street thugs and giving them a badge and a uniform. They then call that thug, the ‘chief’ and he is allowed to run his own little three-ring circus until enough people get abused or killed. “we investigated ourselves and found no wrong-doing”… is that the same kind of question you would ask a child-predator or a group of drug-dealers… ‘I investigated myself, I didn’t do anything wrong’…
How many times are we going to hear that silly excuse? How many times are the voters going to keep allowing criminals to run their local law enforcement… and how many more ‘boot-lickers’ are going to get down on their knees, and praise a thug for his military service?
It’s a damn good thing she was not driving 8mph over the speed limit…Office Brian Shimmel may have shot her ? I wonder if he is a trainer in DE-escalation ? Did anyone check the officer for taking Steroids or any drugs. He appeared to be hyped up on something.
The officer minimized to her father about how he wanted ( on a rainy day ) the car window all the way down. By the way, the window is not required to be dropped all the way down as long as you can fit the drivers license through. Especially during a rainy day.
Has this officer in the past ever been talked to or disciplined for not using a de-escalation technique ? HELL YES !!!!! That was an easy question ! If you got that answer wrong…you should go to school to learn common sense.
I’m curious, what would you do if this out of control animal of a cop did what he did to your daughter ???
Will he get away with his out of control and horrible assault on this little girl ??? PROBABLY !!! This is the problem with some officers ! These type of officers get the good officers killed. The police chief from this community should be fired for not only hiring this animal …but condoning this animals behavior !!!!
Down the road I can see it happening where some cop or citizen gets killed because of the behavior of horrible cop Brian Shimmel and you will see the police chief play dumb and act as thou who ever would of believed it. How will the police from this community cover up and lie to protect this cop ???? Just watch it play out and you will see.
the cop is a mental patient physcopath low iq slow adult special needs individual..he’s a physcopathic liar…I just read that he was fired
what I don’t understand is that how does the 18 year old girl get armbarred and thrown on the ground 🤔..glad he was fired..he’ll do it again in the next town over next week when he’s rehired as a Gypsy cop from another mental patient physcopath low iq slow adult special needs police chief