Cops break woman’s car window, arrest her and her son in viral TikTok

Viral TikTok footage shows three white police officers arresting a woman and her son after one of the officers broke the woman’s car window. 

Police claim the altercation came after the woman drove away from an assault investigation with the juvenile suspect, according to reporting by the News Observer. The incident occurred in Wake Forest, a town in North Carolina. The police officer who broke the woman’s window is still on duty.

Wake Forest police said in a press release Tuesday that the officers involved were investigating a reported felony assault by strangulation involving a 15-year-old male suspect and a 14-year-old female victim. As officers attempted to investigate the alleged assault, the male suspect refused to cooperate. Shortly after, the woman, Maria Del Carmen Rendon, 35, became uncooperative and fled the scene in a vehicle with the suspect and three other minors, according to the press release.

As she drove away, Rendon allegedly almost struck an officer with her car, then ran a stop sign, and almost crashed into an oncoming tractor trailer, the press release stated. Police eventually initiated a traffic stop, leading to the altercation recorded and posted to TikTok. 

User @biancaibarra48 posted four different recordings of the altercation. It’s unclear what her relation is to Rendon and her family. The videos have garnered a collective 34.4 million views.

The first recording shows an officer approaching the driver side window of the car repeatedly telling the driver, Rendon, to “get out of the car now.” Rendon refuses, and the officer tells her that if she doesn’t get out of the car, he’ll break her window. 

A subsequent video showing the events before the officer approached Rendon’s driver side window revealed that the officer first approached the back passenger window where Rendon’s daughter was sitting. He threatened to break that window first before moving to the driver side.

She continues to refuse, and the officer counts down from five before breaking her window, with the children inside. 

The officer then reaches into the car, opens the door, and pulls the woman out. A second police officer helps shove the woman to the ground and handcuff her. The teenagers are heard yelling at the officers while another child cries and screams. 

As the officers handcuff her on the ground, Rendon instructs the teenagers to “record” and to make sure to get her face in the recording. Rendon also tells the officers that she’s not resisting and, at one point, says that she can’t breathe.

The officers tell the teenagers to “back up” after they exit the car to record their mother’s arrest.

Although the allegation can’t be seen in the recording, the girl recording the video says that the officer who broke the window choked her. 

The 15-year-old boy also gets into an argument with the officers, and the officer who broke the window threatens to take the child to jail as well. 

A second TikTok shows the officer instructing the teenagers to stay with the crying child before walking back to the police car and other officers. The girl turns toward the squad car where her mother is and says she saw one of the officers, a woman, hit Rendon in the face. 

The female officer and the officer who broke the window are then seen exchanging words, although it’s unclear what was said from the video. They then arrest the 15-year-old, the suspect described in the press release, and pin him against Rendon’s car to handcuff him. 

Another officer attempts to calm the still-screaming toddler, who then exits the car to go to the teen girl recording. 

A third TikTok shows a fourth police officer trying to block the girl from recording the other officers detaining the boy. 

Comments on the three TikToks were turned off as of Saturday. However, viewers flocked to @biancaibarra48’s other videos to weigh in on the incident, which divided folks. Some believed the officers acted lawfully while others asserted they used excessive force.

The boy who was accused was taken into secure custody, according to the police press release.

Rendon was charged with resist; delay and obstruct; contributing to the delinquency of a minor; driving while license revoked; and careless and reckless driving, the press release stated. She was taken to the Wake County jail where a magistrate set bail at $3,000, the News Observer reported.

“None of this would have happened had Ms. Rendon not recklessly fled the scene endangering the lives of her young passengers and motorists in the area and had she exited her vehicle when officers repeatedly asked her to do so,” Police Chief Jeff Leonard said in the release. “Most of our residents offer no resistance during the calls we respond to, but unfortunately in this case we met resistance at every turn from Ms. Rendon and the male suspect,” he said.