WAKE FOREST, N.C. Local Charlotte – A TikTok video that shows an officer breaking a window of an SUV and removing the driver came after officers attempted to investigate an assault, Wake Forest police say.
The traffic stop occurred along the 200 block of Plott Hound Lane and ended along Wait Avenue just before 2:30 p.m. Officers received a report of an assault by strangulation involving a 15-year-old and a 14-year-old female.
When officers attempted to investigate the possible assault, the male refused to cooperate, the Wake Forest press release read.
Maria Del Carmen Rendon (Raleigh/Wake CCBI)
Maria Del Carmen Rendon, 35, was identified as the driver of the vehicle. She fled the scene with the 15-year-old male and three other juveniles, police said.
Wake Forest police said, “as she drove off, Rendon came close to striking an officer with her vehicle before running a stop sign and nearly colliding with an oncoming tractor-trailer.”
Police added, “As the vehicle exited the neighborhood, officers initiated a traffic stop, and the vehicle pulled over.”
Rendon was told multiple times to step out of the vehicle. After numerous refusals by Rendon, the officer informed her that she had the option to open the door or have her window broken, the release said.
Due to Rendon’s continued refusal to exit the vehicle, the officer broke the driver’s side window and removed her, police said.
She was arrested was charged with resist, delay, and obstruct, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, driving while license revoked, and careless and reckless driving.
The male suspect was also taken into custody, police said.
“While investigating a felony assault, we were forced to react to a situation that was entirely avoidable,” Wake Forest Police Chief Jeff Leonard said in a statement. “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. 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.”
The TikTok videos begin as the officer warns Rendon that he will break her window and remove her from the vehicle.
The videos show an altercation between the person taking the videos and the 15-year-old male who was in the SUV.
The video ends with the 15-year-old being arrested following that altercation.
