68-year-old Black woman accuses police of tearing her rotator cuff during 2019 traffic stop captured on video

A federal lawsuit filed by a Georgia librarian says White officers used excessive force on the Black woman during a traffic stop in North Carolina, adding they pulled her from her car by her hair and tore her rotator cuff. The suit filed Wednesday by Stephanie Bottom of Atlanta claims she posed no threat to the officers from the Salisbury Police Department and the Rowan County Sheriff's Office when she was stopped in May 2019.

But officers approached her vehicle with guns drawn and later violated her rights by using excessive force, the lawsuit said. Bottom, now 68, said she was driving to Raleigh for a funeral in May 2019 when she was pulled over for suspected speeding and failing to heed blue lights, the Charlotte Observer reported.