TYLER, TX – On Wednesday, Tyler Police Chief Jimmy Toler spoke with CBS19 and said that the woman at the center of a controversial arrest made the decisions that escalated the altercation by resisting and reaching for the officer’s gun.
The arrest, which took place on Sunday afternoon on May 11th near the intersection of Albertson Avenue and W. Summerkamp Street, has since gone viral on social media. Video of the arrest released by the police department shows the altercation. Officers were responding to a theft involving two women at the Dollar General.
One of the suspects, since identified as Brianna Erwin, tried to walk away and didn’t listen to the officers’ orders. Body cam footage shows Erwin reached for one of the officer’s gun inside his holster, causing the weapon to go off. In that moment, the officer hit Erwin with a closed hand. Toler said the closed-hand strike was used to stun Erwin.
Toler said that the incident has not been identified as a full officer-involved shooting because Erwin was the one who caused the gun fire; he stressed that it was Erwin’s choices that led to where the situation is today.
The chief said, “She made the decision to resist. She made a decision to grab that officer’s gun, and she made a decision to pull the trigger on it. She made a decision to keep resisting afterward that made these officers take the actions they did, and she is now in jail because of those decisions.”
At the time of the incident, Erwin had an outstanding warrant for aggravated assault and other current charges. That outstanding warrant stems from a probation violation. In February, she was sentenced to eight years of probation and 240 community service hours after pleading guilty to an April 27, 2024 incident.
For the incident that transpired on May 11th, Erwin faces charges of two counts of aggravated assault on a public servant, possession of a controlled substance, resisting arrest, evading arrest/detention, and harassment of a public servant. The theft charges are still under investigation. Her bonds for the charges mentioned above total $410,000.
Tolder said that the Tyler Police Department intends to be as transparent as possible and conduct both an internal investigation regarding the officer’s actions and use of force. He added, “We’re going to fully investigate this and make sure that it falls within our policy guidelines. We had to remember that everything that we are in here for today was based on the decision she made.”
The officer, who has been placed on administrative duty, used what Toler called soft controls as Erwin was resisting and her touching the gun is what led to the closed-hand strike. In the video, Erwin could be heard yelling that she was pregnant, a claim that has since been found false after her arrest. Toler said that if she was in fact pregnant, she still should have cooperated.
He said, “She continued to be belligerent. She continued to resist. And even at times, trying to strike her head on items at the jail and items in the car. It never stopped.”
Toler advised that if someone has a problem about what is going on during an arrest, they should file a complaint afterwards. He said, “fighting with an officer in the middle of streets is not the way to do it.”
While trying to restrain Erwin, the officer’s body camera fell off and he put it back on, something Toler said has allowed the police department to see exactly what happened. He said, “We are extremely proud of the restraint these officers had because this could have been severely worse when she grabbed that firearm and chose to pull that trigger. It escalated this to a deadly force situation and by the restraint of these officers alone, she is still alive and with us today.”
After the arrest was over, another officer started to check to see if the officer was bleeding because he didn’t know if he was shot. Toler said, “He is here with us in the building on admin duty because we want to make sure that we protect him as he goes through this process and he will stay in that role until we conclude our investigation. But, I’m glad you asked that because it’s important for us to know that this person had the intent to harm or possibly kill a Tyler police officer.”
