The family of a black teenager who said the police in Stockton, California, “beat him up violently” during an arrest in 2020, filed a federal lawsuit against the city and four policemen.
The teenager, Devin Carter, had bruises on both eyes, as well as scratches on his face and back after being arrested after a traffic stop on December 30, 2020. Two policemen, Michael Stiles and Omar Villapudua, were fired during the incident.
Family lawyer John Burris released pictures of Carter’s bruises as well as videos from the police body’s camera.
The footage shows a policeman yelling at Carter to “take off his f —— seat belt.”
“OK, OK, OK. I’m down,” Carter replies as he is pulled out of his car and forced to fall to the ground. “I’m not resisting,” says the 17-year-old repeatedly.
In the video, Carter can be heard screaming in pain and repeatedly saying “ouch” while the police handcuff him.
Burris said the police acted like a “wolf pack and” without any provocation or cause, took the young black man out of his car and beat him violently “.
He said he had not seen a policeman beating so violently since Rodney King, a black man who was beaten by the Los Angeles police in March 1991. The city exploded in riots in 1992, after a jury acquitted four white police officers seen in images of video beating King.
“Devin feared that the police would beat him to death,” the lawyer said in a press release.
The suit, which opened on Friday, says Carter was driving to his father’s house when police officers started following him in an attempt to stop him for speeding. The teenager initially did not know that the police were after him, the suit says.
The lawsuit accuses police officers of using a “chase intervention technique” to get Carter to stop, which caused another vehicle to swerve. The car was hit by a police vehicle, according to the lawsuit, which says Carter was unaware of the accident.
The teenager finally stopped and waited in his car with his hands “visibly raised above the steering wheel”, the lawsuit says. He was then pulled out of the car and thrown to the ground, according to the process.
“Devin Carter immediately cringed in a fetal position as several policemen gathered around him and beat him violently with closed fists and feet,” the document says. “Devin Carter got a knee in the face by an officer and was hit in the face several times. In addition, Devin Carter was kicked and kneeled in his side and in the back.”
The lawsuit says that Carter posed no threat to the police while he was contained on the ground and did not resist.
Stockton police said the chase started when officers saw Carter driving “erratically and accelerating to over 160 km / h”. The department accused the teenager of turning off his headlights and leading the police in a three-minute chase.
He stopped after crashing when he lost control in a corner, the police said. He was arrested in a juvenile detention center on charges of evasion and resistance to arrest.
Four policemen used force during the arrest, according to Stockton’s chief of police, Eric Jones. They were initially placed on administrative leave, but the chief said in a statement on Tuesday that “several” police officers were punished.
Officers Stiles and Villapudua were fired for acting “well outside the scope of our policy and training,” said Jones.
“Our department has policies that state that we should make attempts to avoid hitting a person trapped in the head and neck when possible. Given this set of circumstances, I cannot and will not tolerate any excessive force,” he said in a statement. . “In addition, any use of profanity is considered unjustified and unprofessional.”
The San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office is also reviewing the case.
The Stockton Police Department, the city attorney and the Stockton Police Officers Association did not immediately return a request for comment on Saturday.
Mayor Kevin Lincoln said he was “deeply saddened and worried” about what happened during Carter’s arrest.
