Decorated Army vet files $3M claim alleging National Guard assault

National Guardsmen shoved a retired Army captain to the pavement in violent retaliation for her opposition to their deployment in Washington D.C., the decorated soldier said in a multi-million administrative claim filed this week. The confrontation unfolded May 8 in front of the home of retired Capt. Anna King, on New York Avenue NW in the district, she said in her claim filed against the Defense Department on Tuesday. King, 44, was sitting on a bench outside her home at about 7:05 p.m. when “three National Guardsmen walked through the gate and announced they were” apprehending her, though they “did not have a warrant and did not explain the basis for” detaining her, according to the complaint made against Idaho National Guard. The guardsmen “grabbed her arms and back and shoved her toward the concrete patio” before two of them “pressed their weight down on her and cuffed her wrists behind her back, extraordinarily tightly, with plastic handcuffs,” King’s legal team wrote. “Ms. King repeatedly screamed in pain, but the Guardsmen continued to hold her down and did nothing to help her. One Guardsmen pressed his knee into her back and pulled her arms upward, increasing the pain,” according to the injury claim seeking $3 million. “A Guardsman squatted on top of Ms. King, holding onto the handcuffs, for about eight minutes, keeping her immobilized, her face against the concrete. As additional National Guardsmen arrived on scene, Ms. King complained that her shoulder hurt and pleaded for the Guard members to loosen the handcuffs, but no one did. She asked why she was being detained but received no response.” A Metropolitan Police Department officer allegedly told King’s neighbor that night that the former Army captain was a suspect in an assault of a guardsman days earlier. That allegation is “baseless” and no such charges have ever been filed against King, her legal team said. King, in her claim, said she’d been a vocal critic of the Guardsmen patrolling Washington D.C. King said she had displayed signs at her home, including “Occupation: Troops Out” and “National Guard Stop Being So Embarrassing,” according to the complaint. The “only apparent reason the Guards targeted Ms. King was her speech, via the prominent signs in her window, criticizing their presence in the District,” accoring to the claim. A Defense Department official declined to comment on King’s allegations on Friday. “As a matter of longstanding policy, the Department does not comment on ongoing litigation,” the rep said. The Trump administration said it deployed the National Guard to various U.S. cities — such as Los Angeles, Chicago, Portland, Ore., and Washington, D.C. — in an effort to battle crime. The Defense Department said earlier this month that the National Guard will remain deployed in Washington D.C. through Inauguration Day 2029. King served in Iraq and has received a Bronze Star and Purple Hart for her service, according to her claim.