Erin Cowser was 17 years old, 90 pounds, and days away from graduating high school when her life changed outside a Food 4 Less in San Bernardino, California. She was not in a fight. She was not resisting. She was walking across a parking lot to talk to a friend. Then a police officer grabbed her from behind.

According to a lawsuit filed on April 4 and reported by CBS Los Angeles, Officer Jackson Tubbs rushed up behind Cowser, seized her backpack, pinned her arms, and performed a hip toss that sent her airborne before she landed face-first on the asphalt. Her legs flew over her head. She was partially handcuffed at the time. She lost consciousness on impact.

"I woke up hurt, confused, and being told things that I later learned weren't true about what happened to me."

— Erin Cowser

Cowser said she regained consciousness in the back of a police cruiser on the freeway, covered in blood, her chin still bleeding. She asked the officer what happened to her. "He was like, 'You fell,'" she told reporters at an April 4 press conference. "And then it went black again. And I remember waking up in the hospital."

The lawsuit, filed in San Bernardino County Superior Court, says Cowser suffered a traumatic brain injury with memory loss, a deep facial laceration requiring stitches that left permanent scarring, a dislocated wrist, and back injuries. All misdemeanor charges against her, including trespassing and attempting to fight others, were later dropped. Her attorneys say she "posed no threat and committed no crime."

What makes this case particularly damning is what allegedly happened after. According to the lawsuit, Officers Tubbs and Guillen told Cowser's family, while she was still hospitalized, that her injuries had been caused by the other teenagers inside the store, not by police. That account was false, and both body camera footage from Officer Guillen and a cellphone video recorded by a witness showed Cowser with no visible injuries before Tubbs grabbed her.

The lawsuit goes further, alleging that an officer admitted to lying during a subsequent use-of-force investigation, and that the San Bernardino Police Department still never publicly corrected the record. "This was not a mistake," attorney Toni Jaramilla said at the press conference, per ABC7. "It was violence, followed by dishonesty. A police officer took a petite, unarmed teenage girl, with her hands behind her back, and hip-tossed her like a rag doll, face-first onto the concrete. He then lied about it. When the truth surfaced, the police department still refused to correct the record."

The lawsuit provides context for how Cowser ended up in that parking lot. A group of teenagers had been bullying and assaulting other young people inside the Food 4 Less on West 2nd Street. A security guard used pepper spray to stop the attacks. Cowser, who was herself assaulted by one of those teens as she left the store, walked outside to rejoin friends who were standing nearby.

According to reporting by DNYUZ, witnesses on the scene told officers immediately that Cowser had been attacked and had done nothing wrong. Cowser herself said she was never told she was under arrest, and was never given any commands to comply before Tubbs grabbed her. She was, in her own description, trying to take her backpack off when he began handcuffing her. The last thing she heard before losing consciousness was the officer telling her to stop resisting.

The San Bernardino Police Department has disputed the characterization of events. In an earlier statement, SBPD said the officer was in the process of placing Cowser in handcuffs when she "began actively pulling away and attempting to walk off," at which point "a takedown maneuver was used." The department said a supervisor was called, photographs were taken, and Cowser was transported to a hospital. The city and the department have both declined further comment, citing pending litigation.

The lawsuit names Officer Tubbs, Officer Guillen, and the city of San Bernardino as defendants. It includes claims under California's Bane Civil Rights Act and Ralph Civil Rights Act, as well as allegations of assault, battery, and negligence.