‘I don’t feel safe’ - Iowa woman believes video shows excessive force from Toledo cop

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) - A Tama County woman, Shyla Wolf, said listening to her three kids cry and scream was the toughest part of watching the body camera footage of her arrest at a traffic stop in March.

“That was really hard to watch,’ Wolf said. “You could just tell they were scared and they probably felt helpless. There was nothing they could do to help their mom.”

Wolf spoke to our KCRG-TV9 i9 Investigative Team for the first time about the arrest, which is the subject of a third-party investigation into the use of force used by Toledo Police Officer Kyle Howe. The investigation should take about two weeks and could cost several thousand dollars, according to Toledo City Attorney Mike Maqruess.

Marquess said he believes Officer Howe will perform administrative duties while he is on administrative leave with pay. This comes after our KCRG-TV9 i9 Investigative Team published the body camera footage on Friday.

The video shows Toledo Police Officer Kyle Howe misleading fellow law enforcement officers and pushing Wolf, into a patrol car while making a phone call to secure childcare for three children. Howe, then threatened to use a TASER while at least one of the three children are crying in the car.

According to the video, Wolf was being arrested because she was driving while bared. The Department of Transportation said the license was barred starting February 2022 because the holder is a habitual offender. Wolf, according to court documents, faces a handful of driving-related offenses and three felonies because she put her kids in danger by refusing police commands.

Court records also show Wolf and Officer Howe had multiple interactions including during some of Wolf’s numerous driving-related offenses.

According to court records, Wolf has been able to find an attorney to defend herself in court. She was raising money for an attorney on GoFundMe to pay for a civil attorney for a potential lawsuit against the city of Toledo because she believes excessive force was used during her arrest.

Wolf said she doesn’t remember a lot of information about the stop, but she woke up with marks across her body and had trouble moving around with soreness. She said she was most concerned about her three children in the car.

“I know they were scared and traumatized,” Wolf said. “I just felt helpless.”

Wolf also said she was confused about the officer’s rationale for threatening to use a TASER because she was on her stomach on the ground while the officer was on top of her. She said she felt the weapon on her spine, in the middle of her back, and then asked her son to begin recording the event.

“I wanted my son to start recording because I didn’t know what this cop was going to do to my kids,” Wolf said. “Like once I’m tased, I’m helpless.”

The video could also affect other cases because Officer Howe misled other law enforcement officers, who responded to the scene after the scuffle occurred. Howe said Wolf was trying to use her kids to fight him, which never occurred in the nine-minute video reviewed by our KCRG-TV9 i9 Investigative Team.

We found at least one other case in Tama County, where a defense attorney is asking a judge to throw out evidence because Officer Howe “falsifies his reports” and has a “reckless disregard for the truth” in a filing on Tuesday.

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