Emotions ran high in a Los Angeles Tuesday where a former police officer is on trial in the death of a woman she was arresting.
The last moments of Alesia Thomas' life were captured by a camera mounted inside an LAPD patrol car. They are moments which were played over and over in court.
"It hurts ... it really hurts," said Sandra Thomas, the victim's mother.
Added her grandmother, Ada Moses:
"It is pretty difficult because it shouldn't have been that way."
Thomas' family members sat inside a downtown LA courtroom as testimony continued in the trial of former LAPD Officer Mary O'Callaghan. She's charged with assault under color of authority stemming from the 2012 arrest of Thomas, whose mother recalls their last conversation.
"It made me feel good because I thought I lift her spirits, I heard her laugh but the next morning I got a phone call at 5 in the morning," Sandra Thomas said.
That phone call notified her Thomas died while in police custody.
O'Callaghan can be seen on the in car video shoving Thomas in the throat and kicking or shoving her in the groin and stomach several times. O'Callaghan's attorney has said her actions were reasonable because Thomas was resisting arrest and struggled with three officers.
O'Callaghan is also heard using vulgar language and profanity to describe Thomas, but once again a LAPD officer who was on scene testified he didn't see or hear any of it.
O'Callaghan lost her job after the LAPD investigated the arrest of Thomas, who was under the influence of cocaine.
"They want to say she was affected by drugs or drug induced, however you want to say it," said A.C. Moses, the victim's uncle. "If they worked within protocol my niece would still be here today,"
