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Natalie White’s previous encounter with police
The FOX 5 I-Team obtained video showing an encounter Natalie White had with Norcross police months before becoming a suspect in the Wendy's arson.
NORCROSS, Ga. - Some two months before police charged Natalie White with burning down the Wendy’s where Rayshard Brooks was killed by police, she had another interaction with police.
Childhood friends in Norcross told police she tore up their home and struck one of them in the face.
No charges were filed that night, but on a police bodycam video obtained by the I-Team Natalie White told an officer it all started because her friends told her she was crazy.
She was cut, bleeding, and visibly upset as a Norcross patrolman gently wrapped her hand, she would verbally spar with officers for more than 40 minutes making it clear she wanted no part of the police.
"You can shoot me. You can shoot me. I have nothing. I didn't call, I know the law. I'm not a fool. Let me go the **** home, man," White said to an officer captured on his body camera.
It was late April according to a Norcross Police report. While visiting two childhood friends Natalie White "became emotional and began throwing things." Those friends called the police.
Officers wearing body cameras saw the damage first hand. Natalie White struck her childhood friend according to the report. She threw liquor bottles against a glass oven door, damaged a ping pong table, then punched a glass door window, gashing her hand, according to her friends.
Police wanted emergency medical specialists with the fire department to examine her wound. She was afraid she would have to pay for care.
FULL COVERAGE: DEATH OF RAYSHARD BROOKS
Natalie White refused care. Her friends didn't file charges. But, according to the police report, one of those friends told police Natalie White needed to be sent for mental health evaluation. Natalie White told officers why her childhood friends upset her so much.
"They were adamant, they were in my face. "
(About what?)
"That I'm crazy. They think I'm crazy. Do you think I'm crazy?
(I don't know you)
"Maybe I am, but that is not for you to determine," said White.
Two months later the same Natalie White became a central figure in the unfolding drama involving a deadly police shooting and an arson.
In a Wendy's parking lot, Rayshard Brooks facing a DUI arrest fought with police, grabbed an officer's Taser, and was shot in the back by Officer Garrett Rolfe after firing the Taser at the officer while running away.
Prior to the attempted DUI arrest, Brooks told officers his girlfriend, Natalie White, could drive him home.
" I’m sure things will surface with the passage of time, said Natalie White's attorney Drew Findling.
Findling would not characterize the relationship between White and Brooks, out of respect for the Brooks family.
FOX 5 cameras rolled when a woman fitting White's description appeared to ignite an aerosol can in the doorway of Wendy’s. Findling says the Wendy’s was already on fire. She was arrested and charged with arson.
Some two months earlier Natalie White was not arrested that night in Norcross. Police wouldn't let her drive and took her home. Earlier she had cussed about the “white entitled privileged ********” who called police on her.
In the back seat of a patrol car, as a Norcross officer drove her home, she told the officer she sometimes forgets officers are people too.
"Police officers are like robots now. We’re like not supposed to like them. I empathize with you," said White.