HOUSTON – On Friday, Texas City police released the body camera videos of two officers involved in the arrest of a maskless woman.
Terry Wright is accused of refusing to wear a mask inside a store in Texas City. A few days earlier, she was charged with resisting arrest and criminal trespass for the same act inside a Galveston bank. This incident happened one day after Texas lifted the statewide mask mandate.
On Wednesday, just after 9 a.m., Texas City police said they responded to an Office Depot at 9550 Emmett F Lowry Expy, where a woman inside the store refused to wear a mask or leave the store.
According to bodycam footage, the first officer arrived at the store and was met by an employee. As the officer approaches, the woman was yelling information off her phone and propped up against a checkout counter in the front of the store.
The officer told the woman: “If you refuse to leave, you are going to go to jail for trespassing.”
“You can’t. You want to read this,” Wright replied while directing the officer to look at her phone. “These are my federal rights.”
Wright refused to leave the store, and the officer proceeded to handcuff her while she resisted and told the officer she was violating her rights. By this time, another officer had arrived at the scene, and helped handcuff and escort Wright outside of the store.
In the other bodycam video, the second officer walked into the store and approached Wright, who was being held by another officer.
“This is a major violation,” Wright said repeatedly as she was being handcuffed by the officers.
“I’m trying to school you people of my rights,” she later said as she exited the store.
As the two officers escorted her outside of the store, they discovered that Wright was also involved in the Bank of America incident in Galveston last week. They contacted Galveston police and confirmed Wright had two warrants out for her arrest related to the incident in Galveston.
Wright was taken into custody and transported to the Galveston County Jail by the Texas City Police Department for booking and processing. She was held on a criminal trespassing charge, with bond set at $1,000, and a resist arrest search or transport charge, with bond set at $1,500, according to the Texas City Police Department.
No additional charges were filed related to the Office Depot incident, according to the release.
According to the videos, there were at least three officers at the scene.