College Cheerleader Slammed to Ground by Police in Shocking Video

An Arizona State University senior whose violent encounter with Tempe police was captured on viral video is now facing misdemeanor charges nearly three months after footage of the arrest sparked outrage and questions over the officers’ use of force.

Eryn Kelise Bonner, 21, a member of ASU’s STUNT team, has been charged in Tempe City Court with disorderly conduct and hindering or interfering with police stemming from the early-morning July 19 confrontation on Mill Avenue.

The charges come after the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office declined to pursue felony charges originally sought by Tempe police.

Video recorded during the chaotic encounter shows Bonner approaching officers as they attempted to detain people involved in an altercation.

“Let him go! Let him go!” Bonner can be heard shouting as officers repeatedly tell her to move back.

What happened next has become the center of a bitter dispute between Bonner’s attorney and police.

Footage shows an officer forcefully pushing Bonner backward. After she approaches the officers again, the confrontation turns physical and Bonner is taken to the ground near a police bicycle.

The struggle continues as the officer restrains her, and footage appears to show the officer striking Bonner before another officer moves in to help place her in handcuffs.

Photos taken afterward showed Bonner with significant bruising and swelling around her face.

Tempe police maintain that the viral clips circulating online do not show the entire encounter.

According to police accounts contained in court documents, Bonner repeatedly ignored orders to stay back while officers were dealing with an active arrest.

Police said Bonner had earlier attempted to interfere with officers and later began struggling as an officer tried to detain her.

Authorities allege she struck one officer in the face multiple times. Police reports say the officer then struck Bonner while attempting to stop her from continuing to hit him.

Bonner’s attorney, Benjamin Taylor, strongly disputes the way police have characterized the confrontation and argues that officers unnecessarily escalated the situation.

“This was very extreme, very excessive and there was no need for double pushes, jumping on top and multiple strikes,” Taylor previously said.

Taylor has called for the officer involved to be fired and has demanded an independent investigation into the arrest rather than relying solely on the Tempe Police Department’s internal review.

He has also raised a separate allegation concerning what he described as inappropriate touching by an officer as Bonner was being restrained.

“If you look at the end of the video, there’s some odd touching at the end of the video which is very concerning,” Taylor said, alleging an officer’s hand appeared to touch Bonner’s buttocks.

Police representatives have pushed back against allegations of wrongdoing and said the complete body-camera and surveillance footage provides important context that shorter clips posted to social media leave out.

The Tempe Officers Association has also defended the officers, saying Bonner repeatedly failed to obey commands and physically confronted an officer.

Whether the officer’s use of force crossed the line remains the subject of an administrative review.

Bonner’s family, meanwhile, says the incident has been devastating.

“There are no words to fully describe the heartbreak of watching our daughter being hurt by someone entrusted to protect and serve our community,” the family said in a statement.

“The hardest thing is seeing the pain and sadness in her eyes that we cannot take away.”

The family said demanding accountability should not be interpreted as an attack on law enforcement generally.

“Expecting public servants to live up to the highest standards of their profession is not an act of animosity toward those who serve with honor,” the statement continued.

“Rather, it is essential to preserving public trust and upholding the integrity and legitimacy of our institutions.”

Former Chandler police officer Josh Logan, who now runs Guardian Training and Consulting, has said the legality of the force could depend heavily on what occurred immediately before the officer struck Bonner.

If Bonner was actively punching an officer, Logan said, closed-fist strikes can fall within law enforcement use-of-force policies.

At the same time, he questioned portions of the arrest, particularly the moment Bonner was forced down onto a police bicycle.

“There’s so many dangerous things on that bicycle that can cut and scrape,” Logan said, while acknowledging that the entire sequence unfolded within seconds during a chaotic confrontation.

The criminal case has also taken several turns.

Tempe police initially sought felony charges, including aggravated assault and resisting arrest, but the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute those counts.

An earlier misdemeanor filing was also dismissed before city prosecutors filed the current two-count case after reviewing the available evidence.

Bonner has pleaded not guilty.

Her attorney has characterized the decision to pursue misdemeanor charges months after the arrest as retaliatory, an allegation the city and police representatives dispute.

The Tempe Police Department says its administrative investigation remains ongoing and that the video, body-camera recordings and other available evidence will be reviewed before a determination is made about whether any officer violated department policy.

Bonner is scheduled for a pretrial conference in Tempe City Court on Nov. 4.

For now, two separate questions remain unresolved: whether Bonner committed crimes when she intervened in the police encounter, and whether the officers who arrested her used an appropriate amount of force.

The widely shared video has guaranteed that both questions will continue to face intense public scrutiny.