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HAMMOND, Ind. — Shikeia Randolph was in her vehicle June 5, 2023, when she looked in her rearview mirror and noticed the police vehicle tailing her down Grant Street. 

The street was void of vehicles, as it was 4:30 a.m. Randolph, who was 11 weeks pregnant at the time, had just dropped her fiancé off at work and was on her way to her mother's house with her four children.

It was part of their regular routine: after she dropped her fiancé off, she would go to her mom's, get herself ready for work and the children ready for daycare, then dropped them off at the facility down the street and went on her way to her job as a certified nursing assistant. On that day, she needed to pick up milk for her youngest child, so she pulled into the GoLo gas station at 1538 W. Ridge Rd, according to a legal complaint filed in federal court June 4.

The police car pulled into a lot across the street. Randolph got out of the car and went inside the gas station's convenience store. When she came back to her car and got inside, Lake County Sheriff's Department Officer Pete Hamady pulled up behind her, got out of the front seat of his cruiser, approached Randolph and asked her for her driver's license. She asked him why he pulled her over. He told her she first needed to step out of her vehicle. 

"I said, 'I don't think that's how this works,'" Randolph said. 

The exchange subsequently led to Randolph being forced out of her car, pinned on the ground and arrested for resisting arrest — something she said she didn't do. Twelve weeks later, she lost the baby. 

Randolph filed a lawsuit against Hamady, three other officers and the Lake County Sheriff's Department that accused them of civil rights violations of excessive force, violation of due process, spoilation of evidence and failure to train officers appropriately. Lake County Sheriff Oscar Martinez declined to comment on the pending litigation. 

The traffic stop lasted about 10 minutes, Randolph said, but it "felt like forever."

From the moment Hamady first spoke, Randolph felt like his tone was accusatory. She said he eventually told her she had an issue with her driver's license in connection with a previous driving while suspended misdemeanor case. However, she said the case had been resolved. Additionally, Hamady said she had an outstanding warrant for truancy for her children's school attendance. She said the warrant was issued about six or seven months prior and she had already appeared in court for it. 

He asked her again to exit the vehicle. 

Randolph said she asked Hamady if she could call her mother to come be with her children before he arrested her and he allowed her to make the call as he radioed for backup. She rolled her window up halfway as she dialed her mother's number; she said the officer would have been able to see her as she made the call. 

Randolph's mother, Latonia Williams-Wright, was on the phone during the whole exchange. She was headed to the gas station to pick up the children when she heard the officers' voices get louder. 

"I said, 'I can't hear you,'" Williams-Wright said. "So she said she was rolling up the window a little bit so I could hear her. And that's when the officers started getting aggressive with her, telling her to let the window down."

Randolph said Hamady put his hands on the window, yanked open the door and pulled her out of the car. The other officers had arrived and helped Hamady place her on the ground. 

"It was straight from the car to the ground," Randolph said. "I'm pleading with them, 'please get off my back, I'm pregnant.'"

Randolph alleges Hamady said he didn't care. She felt the pressure on her back, pelvic area and thighs as the officers' weight held her down.

Williams-Wright said she heard Randolph holler, "I'm pregnant, don't slam me on the ground;" then the line disconnected. When she arrived, her then-10-year-old granddaughter, through tears, told her what happened. 

"She said, 'Yes, they pushed her on the ground,'" Williams-Wright said, "'after she told them not to push her.'"

Hamady's police report supposedly claims Randolph held on to the steering wheel and forcibly resisted arrest. Randolph's attorney, Matt Custardo, said the department has not produced the body camera footage in the case despite Randolph's request. Custardo said he can't understand why not.

"Body cams are worn to protect both sides," he said. "The police and the public."

Randolph's public defender allegedly requested it throughout the duration of her criminal case, but the footage wasn't turned over, Randolph said. Public defender Natalie Williams was assigned to the case. She did not respond to The Times' multiple requests for comment. 

The supposed lack of cooperation by the sheriff's department has made it more difficult for Randolph to pursue litigation against the department, Custardo said. Plus, if the footage could absolve an officer from any wrongdoing, he cannot understand why they would not release it. 

"If the body cam footage could prove that, why wouldn't that come out?" Custardo asked. "I think the fact that it hasn't been, they have given no justification for why they can't release it, that speaks volumes."

The Times has filed a public records request for the body camera footage. 

Randolph's case was resolved in February through a pretrial diversion agreement, which will allow prosecutors to dismiss the misdemeanor charge against Randolph as long as she complies with the conditions of the agreement. 

In the weeks before she lost her child, she was back and forth to the emergency room with pelvic pain. She recalls a pressure in her lower abdomen that did not subside after the incident. The pain slowly got worse to the point where she could not work or get out of bed, and there was only so much medical professionals could do because of the pregnancy. Doctors left her with a print of the baby's footprints as a keepsake.

"I feel like [this incident] was a factor in [losing the baby,] she said. 

Since the incident, Randolph's children — aged 10, 7 4 and 1 at the time — are scared when they see police. Her three younger children were asleep in the back when Randolph was pulled over and awoke when they heard the chaos, but her eldest daughter watched the whole exchange. Randolph herself said she fears any contact with the police, even a routine traffic stop. 

"I wouldn't want to give them any reason to think I'm being aggressive or anything," Randolph said. "It was traumatizing."