An attorney for a woman arrested in Fairfield is alleging excessive force was used on her by an officer in 2025 who is now under fire after video appears to show her punching a 16-year-old boy multiple times during an arrest at Fairfield High School last week.
Last Wednesday, Fairfield Officer Bianca Camacho was filmed appearing to strike Fairfield High School student Maurice Williams multiple times and grabbing him by his hair following a lunchtime altercation at the school.
Fairfield police referred to the officer’s hitting of Williams as “distraction strikes” in a statement issued Thursday.
A distraction strike is used by police to divert an uncompliant suspect’s attention so that handcuffs or other restraints can be applied. They are usually an open-hand strike, punch or kick and are supposed to be directed at non-vital areas of the suspect’s body.
Footage of Camacho’s altercation with the boy went viral and she has been “administratively reassigned” while an outside investigation into the arrest is carried out, Fairfield Police Chief Dan Marshall said in a social media post Friday.
In July 2025, Myah Hamilton was 18 years old when she was forcefully pulled from her vehicle in Fairfield by Camacho, then known as Bianca Brown, during a traffic stop. The passenger in her car recorded the altercation.
Until Sunday, Hamilton kept the cellphone footage of her arrest private, she said in an interview. But after seeing videos of the arrest of Williams last week by the same officer, Hamilton reached out to Williams’ family and released the footage from her arrest.
“I’m going to be 20 years old and it’s still impacting me.”
Myah Hamilton, who was 18 at the time of the arrest
The video, filmed by someone in the passenger seat of Hamilton’s car, shows Camacho standing in the open driver’s doorway of her vehicle.
“Right now, you’re not listening,” Camacho told Hamilton, unclicking Hamilton’s seatbelt.
During the encounter, Hamilton had paperwork stacked on her lap, which she said she pulled from her glovebox while searching for her registration and insurance.
“I was listening,” Hamilton says to Camacho in the video. “I grabbed my registration, I grabbed …”
Camacho then unclicked Hamilton’s seatbelt and soon she was dragged from her car.
Camacho could be seen pulling Hamilton by first her hoodie and then by grabbing two fistfuls of her hair with both hands. She dragged her out of the vehicle and onto the ground with the help of at least one other police officer. According to Hamilton, who is 4 feet, 11 inches tall and 115 pounds, she was then transported to jail, where she stayed for several hours. She was subsequently charged with reckless driving and resisting.
“She ripped my hair out so I had a bald spot,” Hamilton alleges. “I still have the scars from [it].”
The Fairfield Police Department did not respond to requests for comment.
According to court filings, Camacho stopped Hamilton for speeding. Once at Hamilton’s car door, the filing states that Camacho “repeatedly” told Hamilton to stop reaching around inside the car and said that she “continued to disobey Officer [Camacho’s] orders.”
Hamilton’s attorney Peter Johnson said he will be filing a complaint against Camacho after Hamilton’s court case ends this summer. He alleges that the charge of resisting arrest lodged at her “is entirely fabricated in an effort to justify the illegal use of excessive force.”
Following the U.S. Supreme Court case Pennsylvania v. Mimms in 1977, police are legally permitted to remove people from their vehicle if they find that they are not complying with their commands to exit their car, and they are allowed to use force if necessary. It is unclear from the video or from court filings how many requests Camacho made to Hamiton to exit her vehicle or why she asked to get out.
Johnson alleges Camacho used more force than necessary to extract Hamilton from her vehicle.
“She used excessive force,” said Johnson. “It’s not a close call.”
Berry Accius, founder of Voice of the Youth, a nonprofit that advocates for underserved youth, has spoken out about Camacho in the wake of the Fairfield High School arrest and after seeing Hamilton’s video.
“Watching what happened to Maurice retraumatized her,” he said, adding that it prompted her to share her story. “When she saw what was happening, she said, ‘I have to say something.’”
Hamilton has a son due in August and says seeing the video of Williams’ arrest brought up painful memories from last July.
“I’m going to be 20 years old and it’s still impacting me,” she said.