Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/102968
Sarasota News Leader January 11, 2013 Page 31 Despite Christy's claim to be a realtor, the officer forced both her and her client down at gunpoint, then called for backup. "'Get on the ground. Get on the ground,' the officer shouted," said Christy. "I figure we were facedown with a gun on us for five minutes." When the backup officers arrived, at least a few of them drew their guns, too, she added. "There was a point they let us sit up on the cold concrete," she said. "I was cool because I knew we had not done anything wrong." "The whole thing was humiliating and aggravating," the client told The Sarasota News Leader. "I had left the house and was in the carport when [the officer] came at me with her gun drawn," he said. "She was really worked up. I was looking down the barrel at a very excited officer." "I wanted to talk to her," said Christy. She did not get the name of the officer, but she described the woman as being 5 feet, 4 inches tall and Caucasian, with her hair pulled back. The client remembers Christy asking the female officer for an apology. "'I'm not apologizing for doing my job,'" the client recalls the officer responding. Neither Christy nor her client was interested in filing a complaint. New Sarasota Police Chief Bernadette DiPino started work officially on New Year's Day, the day after the takedown on South Lime Avenue. DiPino already has been meeting with city residents to let them become acquainted with her leadership style. (See On the stump circuit in today's News Leader.) DiPino told a Newtown audience Tuesday evening, Jan. 8, "Starting right now, it is our job as police to put our hand out to you." % Sarasota Police Chief Bernadette DiPino/Photo by Norman Schimmel