A former Arizona police officer is headed to trial after surveillance footage and body camera recordings captured her punching a handcuffed, nine-months-pregnant woman in the head inside a jail booking room.
The incident happened back in November 2025, but the case exploded into national headlines this week after prosecutors released the video. Former Buckeye police officer Carri Carrico now faces aggravated assault charges connected to two separate use-of-force incidents, not one. And the more people see this footage, the harder it is to look away.
On November 1, 2025, Carrico pulled over a 21-year-old woman in Buckeye, Arizona, and arrested her for reckless driving. According to ABC 15, the woman was nine months pregnant at the time, and she later told investigators the tension started well before they ever reached the booking room.
She said Carrico was combative during the stop itself, took issue with her attitude, made demeaning remarks while conducting a pat-down, and reportedly told the woman’s family that her chances of going home that night were entirely up to her own behavior. That context matters because what came next inside that booking room did not happen in a vacuum.
Once inside the facility, the situation escalated fast. According to a probable cause statement reviewed by PEOPLE, Carrico attempted to restrain the woman, who was already handcuffed behind her back, to a bench. The woman pulled her hand out, and Carrico allegedly punched her on the right side of her face. The woman then tried to grab Carrico’s hand in response. According to the statement, investigators found no indication that the woman had assaulted Carrico before that punch landed.
The Video Does Not Lie
Surveillance footage obtained by ABC 15 shows Carrico directing the woman to take a seat. She complies without resistance. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, the officer shoves her against the wall, pushes her into a corner, and swings her out.
Once the woman is seated, her shirt rides up, and her pregnant stomach is clearly visible. That is the moment Carrico is seen swinging at her head. The woman was taken to the hospital afterward, where she was diagnosed with a contusion and evaluated for a possible concussion.
She later described her injuries to investigators herself: “I got scratches right here, a bruise right here, scratch on my neck. I got like two things on my back.”
ABC 15 obtained internal investigation documents through a public records request, and what they revealed is damning. Carrico’s original incident report contained zero mention of striking the woman anywhere on her body, let alone in the face.
When investigators raised that, her explanations kept shifting. She reportedly said she had forgotten the moment entirely, then reversed course and insisted she thought she had written it down. Investigators read the report back to her aloud during a second interview and confirmed that neither story held up. There was nothing in that document about any force directed at the woman’s head or face.
I mean, forgetting that you punched a nine-months-pregnant woman in the face is a tough thing to explain.
The Video Looks Really Ugly
When investigators played the recording back for Carrico during questioning, her response did not exactly inspire confidence. “I think the video looks really ugly,” she told investigators. “But I will say I’ve never once in my life open-hand slapped or struck anybody. And in this moment, I just think the only thing that I did was revert to my training.”
Her supervising sergeant reviewed the same recording and reached a completely different conclusion. According to internal records obtained by ABC 15, he characterized her conduct as far beyond what the situation called for, describing it in writing as “aggressive and wholly unnecessary.”
During follow-up questioning, Carrico introduced a new explanation. She told investigators the move was a “distraction strike,” a technique she said she picked up during the roughly decade she spent working for the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department before transferring to Buckeye PD in 2023. She then confirmed, according to ABC 15, that Buckeye does not teach that technique at all.
Her justification for using it anyway was direct. “You don’t unlearn how to be a police officer just because you went somewhere new,” she told investigators. She also added, according to ABC 15, that she did not think the public “treating us like crap means that we have to sit there and be quiet and take it either.”
The woman on the receiving end of all that reasoning was handcuffed, seated, and nine months pregnant.
A Second Victim and a Resignation
The pregnant woman’s case was not an isolated moment. A second incident involved a man arrested in January 2026 for domestic violence. Video shows Carrico striking the restrained man and taking him down to the ground after he headbutted her.
Fellow officers described Carrico’s actions in both cases as unjustified, unnecessary, and excessive. The male victim said, “She tore my shirt. She punched me in the face when I was already restrained.”
Carrico was indicted by a grand jury on May 27, 2026, on two counts of aggravated assault, one count for each incident. She was placed on unpaid administrative leave the day after her indictment and resigned from the Buckeye Police Department on June 4th.
Civil rights attorney Benjamin Taylor, who is not involved in the case, called it plainly: “No officer should ever lay their hands on a restrained person who is handcuffed and not showing any threat. So this is definitely excessive force.”
Carrico has pleaded not guilty to both counts and has a trial scheduled for November. Her attorney has declined to comment.
What this case is going to force a lot of people to confront is not just what happened in that booking room, but how often things like this go undocumented, unchallenged, and unseen. Body cameras and surveillance footage exist precisely because accountability cannot depend on self-reporting.
As attorney Taylor put it, “You have to commend the county attorney for moving forward with an officer, because it’s very rare that you see officers being indicted and prosecuted.” That rarity is exactly the problem.
