A man was tasered on an American Airlines flight on Sunday night after allegedly groping a woman and then resisting arrest.
The flight, due to leave Miami International Airport for Chicago, was at the gate when Jacob Garcia allegedly began groping a woman sitting next to him.
The woman’s boyfriend contacted authorities, reported NBC.
Flight attendants initially tried to diffuse the situation by moving Garcia to another seat but Garcia then “began to scream and insult [the woman] and her boyfriend,” reported Miami New Times.
Crew members then asked Garcia, 28, to get off the plane but he got into an altercation with another passenger, American Airlines said in a statement.
Law enforcement officers soon arrived and Garcia “then became combative with the officers,” the company stated.
Man tasered on Miami-Chicago flight after reportedly groping female passenger https://t.co/Caswe1KQHR pic.twitter.com/tmEdAkPuhb
— WGN TV News (@WGNNews) April 23, 2018
Video footage captured by another passenger showed Garcia being held back by officers while asking, “What is the reason you’re removing me from this plane?”
“You just assaulted a lady, for one,” another passenger said. “You’re a racist, for two.”
Eventually, one officer pulled out a taser and tasered the suspect ten times for a full 50 seconds, according to the arrest report.
Miami-Dade Police Sgt. Lazaro Llerena said that Garcia tried to reach for the taser and he also tried to reach for an officer’s gun at one point.
Garcia was transported to Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center where he was charged with battery, depriving an officer of a firearm, criminal mischief, and disorderly conduct.
Garcia is being held on a $9,000 bond, according to another report by NBC.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether he had an attorney.
The plane took off about an hour after its originally scheduled departure time of 9:30 p.m.
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