Who is Patrick Divers? Texas cop tases boy, 16, at migrant shelter in shocking video
A video has been doing the rounds on social media that shows a teenage migrant boy getting tased by a Texas sheriff's deputy. The bodycam footage has caused quite the stir online that shows the disturbing moment that a law enforcement officer tases a 16-year-old boy for 35 excruciating seconds at a shelter for migrant children in Texas.
On May 12, 2020, Bexar County Sheriff's Deputy Patrick Divers was responding to the staff's 911 call at the Southwest Key Casa Blanca shelter in San Antonio over reports that the Honduran teen had broken two beds and some storage bins.
RELATED ARTICLES
According to the footage that was first obtained by Reveal News, Divers is seen stepping out of his vehicle where he is met by a staffer outside the center who tells him, "One of our youths (is) acting really crazy. He's been breaking stuff… He's super aggressive." The boy reportedly didn't want to go to school that day. This incident is a reminder of the April 2021 killing of Daunte Wright, who was shot dead by Brooklyn Center police officer Kim Potter. In the case of this sheriff, it is being deemed intentional while Potter tried to defend herself saying she mistook her gun for her taser as she even yelled 'taser' before shooting Wright.
What happened that day?
When the deputy entered the building, the migrant boy was sitting inside a bathroom. Ricardo Cisneros, the shelter's interim program director, can be seen talking to the teen, telling him that Divers is "not here to scare you. He is here to make sure everything is OK." The teen then replied, "Dude go the f**k away. I don't need no son of a b***h. Go to hell, dude." Cisneros can be seen trying to reassure the boy that Divers was not there to harm him, but the boy snapped, saying, "Let that son of a b***h touch me. I don't care let him hit me."
Bodycam footage obtained by @reveal captures the tasering of a migrant child at a shelter. (cw: violence) pic.twitter.com/KaUbK1fMXj
— Reveal (@reveal) June 8, 2021
Divers didn't ask for any evidence regarding the boy's wrongdoing. Just moments later, Divers tells his partner Harold Schneider, "I am going to taser his kid." After Divers instructed the teen to "stand up" and to "turn around", he shocked him on the right side of his body. Then he walked over to the boy and continued to taser him while he appeared to be kneeling on the bathroom floor, screaming.
'Where are you taking me?'
As he was being led out of the migrant's shelter, the teen asks the police, "Where are you going to f****ing take me? Tell me where you are going to take me?" Schneider is then heard referring to the boy as 'El Estupido'.
According to the report in Reveal, the Honduran boy was 15 years old when he crossed the border alone in 2019. It was after a gang beat him up and robbed his money which he had earned after selling coconut water. The gang had threatened to kill the boy and this is why he reportedly decided to abandon his native town. Because he arrived in the country as an unaccompanied minor, he was placed in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) and passed through a total of five migrant shelters contracted by the ORR.
Apparently, he had only been at the Texas shelter for a week. Before that, he had spent most of his nine months at centers located in California and Virginia. US Representative Joaquín Castro told Reveal News he would be requesting the ORR to open an investigation into the incident.
Who is Patrick Divers?
Bexar County Sheriff’s Deputy Patrick Divers is the cop who arrived at the shelter for migrant children. As per the report in Reveal, he tased the teenager on the torso and the thighs, giving the 16-year-old 35 seconds of electric current running through his body, leaving him immobile. The child eventually started dripping blood. However, it wasn't clear what started the bleeding.
"Here you have a young man who's experienced incredible trauma," said the Democratic politician who represents San Antonio Joaquín Castro. "We've talked a lot in his country about over-policing in different situations, and this is clearly an example of over-policing with respect to asylum-seeking youth."