Video shows Wake Forest officer breaking window, pulling woman out of car

In the 13-minute video, an officer is seen telling a passenger filming in the backseat to open the door. The driver of the car, Maria Del Carmen Rendon, 35, then tells the officer to come to the driver-side window.

The officer tells the passenger filming in the back, "Either you open it, or I open it with my stick." He then repeats the demand to open the window multiple times, and says "I don't want to break open the window ... your choice."

The officer moves to the driver-side window and asks Rendon to get out of the car.

"Step out of the car, or I'll break your window and drag you out. I don't want to do that. You have a choice here," the officer tells Rendon.

The officer then counts down from four before breaking the window. The officer and a female officer then pull Rendon out of the car and bring her to the ground.

As the officers work to put handcuffs on Rendon, she's heard saying, "I'm not resisting."

Rendon then tells the male officer, "Get your hand off my neck. I can't breathe." The officer replies to Rendon, "You can breathe."

Both officers then tell Rendon to relax.

Police said on Friday they were investigating a reported felony assault by strangulation involving a 15-year-old male suspect and a 14-year-old victim. The male suspect was refusing to cooperate with the investigation, according to police, along with Rendon.

Rendon, the 15-year-old boy and three other children then left the scene of the investigation.

Police said that, as Rendon drove off, she almost hit an officer with her car, ran a stop sign and almost hit a tractor-trailer. Officers then initiated a traffic stop and pulled Rendon over.

During that traffic stop, Rendon refused to get out of the car, police said. After breaking the window and removing her from the car, Rendon was charged with resist, delay and obstruct, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, driving while license revoked and careless and reckless driving.

"None of this would have happened had Ms. Rendon not recklessly fled the scene, endangering the lives of her young passengers in the area, and had she exited her vehicle when officers repeatedly asked her to do so," said Wake Forest Police Chief Jeff Leonard.

The video of the encounter has been shared over 2,000 times on Facebook.

"They don't know that [Rendon] was on the phone with an attorney when he broke the window. You know they messed up," said Jesus Arce, a family member of Rendon's, on Facebook.

WRAL News has reached out to Rendon to get her perspective on what happened and is awaiting her response.