Video Shows Cop Punching Intoxicated Woman After She Bites His Hand

The woman said she couldn't breathe and bit the officer's hand in an effort to release herself from his grip

Police on Long Island say they're investigating a video showing an officer punching an intoxicated woman in the head after she bit him in the hand. It happened while authorities were responding to the report of domestic dispute at her home over the weekend.

The 21-year-old woman, identified as Daniela Hernandez, is shown on video being restrained on a stretcher after Suffolk County police arrived at her husband's Brentwood home on Madison Avenue Saturday.

Police had been called there on the report of a domestic dispute, and the screaming woman is shown resisting as officers and paramedics try to put her on the stretcher. 

A neighbor recorded the confrontation between Hernandez and police from an upstairs window. 

Hernandez admitted she had been drinking but also told NBC 4 New York Monday her cries were ignored as she told police she suffers from asthma. She said she was held down and her face was covered.

Hernandez said she tried to release herself from the pressure of the officer's grip so she could breathe and bit his hand. The video shows him responding with force, punching her several times in the head. 

"Stop biting me!" he says in the footage, while hitting her.

Hernandez showed her bruises Monday, but asked that her face not be shown during the interview. 

"I was telling him, 'I can't breathe, I'm suffocating, I can't breathe,'" she said. 

"I think it was too much for just one girl and two officers. I mean, how strong can I be? You can't hold me down with one officer?" she added. 

Her mother, Maria Hernandez, said, "It was scary, very scary. My daughter, she have asthma."

The woman's brother, Marlon Hernandez, said first responders attacked her "from the beginning."

"They didn't even let her speak or nothing, they just went toward her and got aggressive with her," he said. 

Daniela Hernandez was arrested on charges of second-degree harassment and second-degree assault. 

The officer who was bitten was treated and released from a local hospital. Suffolk County police would only say in response to the video they are actively investigating the case.

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