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Colorado cops handcuff autistic 11-year-old, grab him by neck in viral bodycam footage: ‘You’re choking me’

Reports said that the child was handcuffed by sheriff's deputies and kept alone in a patrol car for two hours, where he repeatedly banged his head

DOUGLAS COUNTY, COLORADO: A disturbing video showing school resource officers manhandling an 11-year-old child with autism after he poked another kid with a pencil has gone viral. As per reports, the incident happened in August last year, but the bodycam footage has been released now as the child's mother filed a federal lawsuit on Tuesday, March 9.

Reports said that the child was handcuffed by sheriff's deputies and kept alone in a patrol car for two hours, and where he repeatedly banged his head. His bail was set at $25,000 as he faced several charges, including criminal assault, assault on a police officer, harassment, and resisting arrest. Now, the victim’s mother has filed a suit, suing the sheriff and the deputies separately. She has sought unspecified damages from the Douglas County School District, the Douglas County Sheriff's Office, Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock, and the three deputies that detained her son on August 29, 2020, at Sagewood Middle School in Parker, Colorado.

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As per Douglas County sheriff's spokeswoman Lauren Childress, officers received a serious call from the school, which claimed a student had been stabbed with a pair of scissors and that a staff member had been assaulted. But she declined to comment on the suit.

The bodycam footage has been shared on Instagram by a user named davenewworld_ who has captioned it as, “Cop in Colorado handcuffs an 11-year-old with autism. He was then left alone in a patrol car for 2 hours where he banged his head over and over, before being held on a $25,000 bail, just for poking another kid with a pencil. This happened in August 2019 but his family filed a lawsuit today.” The graphic video showed the cops speaking with the child as he sat in a common area. Moments later, an officer held his hand and began handcuffing him. "Stop, you're hurting me," the boy screamed. Then a deputy responded, “We don't want to hurt you. We just want you to walk with us, OK?"

The clip shows the child crying and repeatedly pleading with the cops. However, at a point, an officer grabbed him aggressively by his neck as the kid jerked his body. "You're choking me," the victim said. "A.V. was calming down with a school psychologist when the school resource officers approached him aggressively, and threatening him, and handcuffed him. So a situation that could have been handled constructively turned out to be a criminal matter,” ACLU attorney Arielle Herzberg told 9Wants. She added, “In my view, counselors, psychologists, social workers and nurses, should be called in in situations – especially with children with disabilities. Not cops."

While the mother of the boy said, “My son is a loving, caring, funny kid. You know, he struggles with communication. He struggles with social environment sometimes, and struggles with touch and sensory stuff. And, again, everybody should’ve known that. It's been very documented."

Meanwhile, people on social media expressed their anger after the video of the incident went public. One user wrote in the comment section of the Instagram post, “I felt his fear & those primal, terrified shrieks to the bottom of my broken heart. So many adults failed this child this day.” Another user commented, “I have an autistic son who is nonverbal and looks older due to his height. I worry every time we go out in public he may a meltdown and the police may mistake it for something else. It’s terrifying to always worry that what happened in that video could easily happen to my son. F that cop!”

The video has also gone viral on Twitter where a person said, “As a father to a son with autism this video got my blood boiling. Panic and stress sends their sensory issues into overdrive and they can’t think straight. Kids on the spectrum only react to calmness. Cops need training in dealing with such issues. This is madness.” The second one added: “That is a grown man getting in the face of a handcuffed kid. Autism or not, that's no way to treat a child. Period. I'd be doing some serious time if ANYONE steps to my kid like that.”