An Arizona State University cheerleader faces two misdemeanor charges after a viral video showed Tempe officers shoving her onto a bicycle as she tried to stop another arrest.
The Post reported that ASU senior Eryn Bonner, a member of the school’s Stunt team, was taken into custody in the early morning of July 19 in Tempe after she moved back in on officers already arresting someone else.
Bonner had been told to get back. She came forward anyway, screaming “Let him go, let him go,” before the confrontation hit the ground on video and bodycam.
She now faces disorderly conduct and hindering or interfering with police. The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office declined felony charges, and Tempe police said they would not resubmit them. An internal review of the force used is underway.
Tempe police allege Bonner punched an officer multiple times after reapproaching the scene. The clip shows an officer push her to the ground, then put her onto a bicycle and restrain her, appearing to punch her before another officer moved in to cuff her.
That sequence is the core of the dispute. Interfering with a live arrest is not a spectator sport. Once someone closes distance after a clear order to stay back, officers have to control the scene fast, or the original arrest and everyone around it can spiral.
A Tempe Police Department spokesperson told The Post that Bonner faces the two misdemeanor counts. In a separate statement to ABC15, the department said the incident is under administrative review and that it takes “every allegation of officer misconduct seriously.”
"Consistent with our policies, this incident is currently under administrative review. The video of the incident, along with all other available evidence, will be carefully evaluated as part of that process."
That is the right institutional track. Viral frames do not replace evidence review, witness statements, or policy standards.
Bonner’s family said the footage left them devastated and asked the public to hold officers to a high standard without treating every critic as an enemy of the badge.
"There are no words to fully describe the heartbreak of watching our daughter being hurt by someone entrusted to protect and serve our community."
They also said, “The hardest thing is seeing the pain and sadness in her eyes that we cannot take away,” and argued that demanding professional conduct “is essential to preserving public trust and upholding the integrity and legitimacy of our institutions.”
Attorney Benjamin Taylor, who represents the family, called the takedown extreme and said there was no need for what he described as double pushes, jumping on top, and multiple strikes. He also claimed the end of the video shows concerning contact.
"This was very extreme, very excessive and there was no need for double pushes, jumping on top and multiple strikes."
Taylor further said the city would look vindictive if it tried to recharge her more aggressively after the video, and he alleged “odd touching” near the end of the clip, including a hand on her buttocks. Those are serious claims. They belong in the administrative file and, if warranted, in a courtroom, not in a rush to convict either side by screenshot.
Josh Logan, a former Chandler police officer and founder of Guardian Training and Consulting, offered the street-level counterweight. If Bonner reached active aggression by punching an officer, he said closed-fist strikes can fall inside policy.
"If you reach that level of active aggression, you’re within policy to perform closed fist strikes to the face."
Logan also flagged the bicycle itself as a hazard in a messy fight, chains, cogs, and metal that can cut, and said the officer appeared to be trying to get her off it in a split-second scramble before the cuffing.
"There’s so many dangerous things on that bicycle that can cut and scrape. I have scars from cogwheels to chains and everything in between. It appears that she’s trying to move her off the bike and that happens in a split second in a very chaotic scene, and then they take her into custody and go from there."
That is the part phone cameras often skip: arrests are ugly, close-range, and full of bad options when a third party inserts herself into the pile.
After the video spread, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office declined to pursue felonies against Bonner. Police said they would not send those felony counts back up. The case now sits on the two misdemeanors tied to disorderly conduct and interfering with officers.
Tempe’s department says it is probing the force used and will weigh the video with the rest of the evidence. No public finding from that review is in the reporting yet. No officer has been publicly named in the available accounts. The other person being arrested that morning is not identified, and the precise street spot beyond Tempe is not laid out in the coverage.
What is clear is the sequence the camera did catch. A college student who was told to stay back moved in again, yelled for officers to release their suspect, and ended up on the pavement and a bicycle before handcuffs. Police say she threw punches. Her lawyer says the response went too far. A former officer says the alleged punches, if true, change the force picture. The department’s own process is still running.
Lawful orders at an arrest scene are not optional, and viral outrage is not a substitute for facts. When someone steps into a live arrest, the risk lands on everyone there, including the person who refused to stay back.
