An investigation has been launched into a police officer in Hawaii who allegedly arrested a lesbian couple for kissing in public.

Courtney Wilson and Taylor Guerrero are a Los Angeles couple who were vacationing in Honolulu in March when they were confronted by off-duty Officer Bobby Harrison in a Foodland supermarket. According to a federal lawsuit that the pair has filed in Hawaii's US District Court, they were holding hands while shopping and at one point hugged and kissed when Harrison "observed their consensual romantic contact and, in a loud voice, ordered plaintiffs to stop and 'take it somewhere else.'"

When they made it to check-out, Harrison confronted them again after witnessing similar consensual contact.

"He said, 'You girls don't know how to act. You don't know the difference between a motel and a grocery store,'" Guerrero said.

While Wilson was attempting to call the police, Harrison reportedly grabbed her arm and a scuffle ensued.

"I got punched in the face by him. I split my nose open. We were on the ground," Wilson told Hawaii News Now.

Guerrero tried to intervene between Harrison and her girlfriend when he allegedly shoved her. She responded by kicking the officer.

The two women were arrested and charged with assaulting an officer. After they each posted $12,000 bail, they weren't allowed to leave the island and eventually resorted to sleeping in a park.

The charges were eventually dropped. The lawsuit asserts that Harrison had accosted the pair because he "was motivated by invidious discriminatory animus toward gay/same-sex couples."