A Langley woman is suing Vancouver police, claiming officers in two unmarked police vehicles wrongfully boxed in her Cadillac Escalade in a parking lot before exiting their vehicles and tearing off her vehicle's door handles.

Syreeta Moore, a shelter worker, said officers Dale Weedman and Anton Chamberger forcibly removed her from her vehicle, then interrogated her at the city jail. She was released without charge hours later.

In a lawsuit filed in B.C. Supreme Court, she said at no time was there a legal justification for the detention and the incident amounted to assault and battery, wrongful detention and false imprisonment.

She said she suffered bruises and abrasions, an injury to her scalp, muscular tightness and soreness, nervous shock, tension and anxiety and sleeplessness.

"The conduct of the police officers was malicious and high handed and showed a wanton disregard for the rights of the plaintiff wherefore the plaintiff seeks punitive damages," says the suit.

The incident is alleged to have happened on Dec. 14, 2010, near a co-operative housing residence located at 4848 Rupert St. in Vancouver.

Moore is seeking aggravated, punitive, general and special damages.

The City of Vancouver and the two officers are the named defendants. The city and the police department did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday morning.

No response has been filed to the lawsuit. A notice of civil claim contains allegations that have not been proven in court.

- Keith Fraser is a Vancouver Province reporter