BAKERSFIELD - A woman accused of trying to shoot a Bakersfield police officer said she was beaten and bruised by police during her arrest.
Police said three people were injured when a bullet ricocheted Monday as the officer struggled with the woman for control of his holstered gun.
It started as a fight between family members, but quickly escalated once police got involved. Police said a woman on drugs, tried to shoot an officer as he took her into custody.
"They're sitting there giving me blows to my face. I was scared for my life," said Adelaida Cortez.
Adelaida Cortez sits in jail, badly beaten and bruised from her violent encounter with Bakersfield police.
"They threw themselves on me. They had their knees here and all their weight on me. I didn't raise a hand. They beat the s*** out of me," she explained.
It all started around 5 a.m. Monday with a domestic disturbance on Hughes Lane in south Bakersfield. Cortez said she got into a fight with her stepfather.
When officers tried to take her into custody, they said she violently resisted. "None of them have a scratch or mark. Their hair weren't even messed up. I resisted, but I never violently resisted," noted Cortez.
"During the apprehension of her, she was able to place her hand on the officer's firearm and actually fire the firearm while it was in the holster," said Detective Kenneth Farnsworth.
The gun went off and a bullet hit the pavement. "I didn't grab it to pull it out. I just wanted the popping noise so it would scare them away," she noted.
Three of Cortez's family members were hit by shrapnel, causing minor injuries. "It didn't hit me. It didn't hit the officers. It ricocheted and it hit my mom, my brother and my stepdad. That was it," said Cortez.
Officers said even after handcuffing Cortez, the struggle wasn't over yet. "The shattered glass is the result of one of the back windows getting kicked out (by) the suspect," said Farnsworth.
Cortez was booked on charges of assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer, resisting arrest, and being under the influence of a controlled substance.
"I don't regret anything I did because my family members are still alive," said Cortez.
Cortez has five court cases to her name. In 2010, she pleaded 'no contest' to obstructing or resisting an officer and willful cruelty to a child. She is expected to make her first court appearance Wednesday.