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Harrisburg officials Tuesday night released body camera footage after a community activist demanded the firing of a police officer for his handling of a noise complaint at her house.

The incident at 11:30 p.m. Saturday in the 300 block of South Front Street ended with Kimeka Campbell, 39, in handcuffs and one her friends doused in pepper spray.

Campbell, who lives with her husband in Shipoke, said a 6-foot wooden privacy fence protects her back yard but the officer let himself in through a gate in the dark and said he had a right to be on her property because he was investigating a noise complaint.

She vehemently disagreed, and admitted she cursed at him to get him to leave her yard, because she believed he had violated her Fourth Amendment rights. She said she provided her name to him, but refused to spell her last name, and didnt want to speak to him until he left her property.

Eventually, two officers dragged her out of her yard to a police car, where she was arrested. She spent about 40 minutes at the county booking center and was issued two citations: one for disorderly conduct and one for the noise complaint.

Earlier this year, Campbell had been organizing residents to support police reform measures to increase accountability, but city officials said the officers didnt know who she was when they arrived to handle the complaint filed by a neighbor.

A member of a local organization started a petition this week asking for the officer to be fired and pushing for more oversight of officers in the city. The petition had more than 900 signatures by Tuesday night.

Mayor Eric Papenfuse said during Tuesdays virtual city council meeting that he had watched the officers body camera footage and believed the officer handled a difficult situation correctly. He said he wanted to publicly release the footage as soon as possible to knock down some of the rumors and misinformation he believed surrounded the issue. The footage was released later Tuesday night. It contains graphic language.

Harrisburg city council members and Mayor Eric Papenfuse approved a bill to improve oversight of police Nov. 10, 2020. Earlier in the meeting, council heard complaints about an incident at a woman's home that occurred Nov. 7.

It was absolutely legal for the police officer to enter the yard to investigate the complaint, Papenfuse said. He flashed his lights before opening the gate. A citation couldnt be issued without someone being identified.

Papenfuse said the main problem with the incident was the homeowner refusing to identify herself.

The officer reportedly said, let me have your name and Im out of here, Papenfuse said, but Campbell became increasingly hostile.

The officer called for backup and the decision was made to arrest, Papenfuse said. He said a clear warning was given before an officer deployed pepper spray against people who were blocking the arrest.

Papenfuse said it was reprehensible that hundreds of people were signing a petition for the officer to be fired without getting all the information first. He said its hard enough to recruit and retain officers and that officers need to be able to investigate quality of life complaints such as noise complaints.

He said the incident wasted officers' time when the city has more pressing needs, including a series of shootings that have plagued some neighborhoods.

We must do better, he said.

Council President Wanda Williams said she had viewed the footage and agreed with the mayor.

Other council members said they wanted to see the footage and said city officials shouldnt make editorial comments about the incident prior to the public getting to see the video.

Prior to Papenfuses comments, more than a dozen people submitted public comments to city council Tuesday night complaining about what happened to Campbell, who co-founded a Young Professionals of Color group in Harrisburg four years ago. She also advocated for a bill to create a citizens law enforcement advisory committee that was on the agenda for Tuesdays council meeting. The bill passed 6-1, with Williams voting against it.

Campbell said she was traumatized by the incident at her home. She had a few friends over in her back yard to celebrate a difficult week with the national presidential election, she said. They had music playing and never heard a knock on the door or her doorbell ring. Then she saw a stranger in her back yard.

One of her friends was talking to the man she didnt recognize, so she walked up to see what was going on. When she realized it was a police officer who had let himself into the yard, Campbell said she immediately demanded that he leave.

After multiple requests by her were denied, she said she started screaming for him to leave using profanity.

Thats when he backed out at the gate but kept his foot wedged in the door so it could not be closed. As her friends became concerned, and one of them tried to close the gate, the officer pulled out a canister of pepper spray, she said.

Back up or Im going to mace you, he reportedly said, and Campbell said she gladly obliged because she didnt want to leave her yard anyway.

But then the officer and a second officer tried to grab her through the gate, Campbell said. She stepped backwards and fell down. Thats when her friend stepped in front of her and told the officers she was going to close the gate.

The officer sprayed the friend with pepper spray, and another friend tackled her to prevent any additional interactions with the officer, Campbell said.

The two officers then came into her back yard and pulled her out into a private parking lot behind her house.

Campbell called her husband for a ride home from the booking center and said she couldnt believe what happened. She believed the officer unnecessarily escalated things by not acknowledging he didnt have a right to barge into her fenced yard.

You cannot walk onto my property and refuse to leave then rip me out of my yard, she said. Over a reported noise complaint after the music is off? It seemed like a total power trip. And with the mace? I dont even know how they would justify using that.

Campbell said she and friends who were at her home Saturday plan on filing complaints with the police department.

The fourth amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects residents from unreasonable search and seizure of a persons home, but a persons yard can be more complicated, attorneys say. What part of someones outdoor property is covered by this protection is often determined on a case-by case basis, according to attorneys.

The penalty for violating this amendment is generally the suppression of any physical evidence obtained. In this case, there was no physical evidence obtained. Instead, there was a dispute that emerged and citations that followed.

City officials said the officer was within his rights to try to contact someone at the home to resolve the pending noise complaint. He flashed his vehicle lights before opening the gate because he had been trying to gain their attention, officials said.

The main officer involved in the incident graduated from the police academy in July 2019.

READ: Can police enter your gated yard without permission? Questions arise after arrest of Harrisburg activist

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Police release body cam video of Harrisburg activists arrest after she calls for officer to be fired - PennLive