Source: (Photo By Raymond Boyd/Getty Images) / (Photo By Raymond Boyd/Getty Images)
A 15-year-old boy with no arms or legs was pinned to the ground by a police officer in the kitchen of the group home he was staying in, in Arizona.
In an eight-minute video released by KOLD News 13, you can see child, named Immanuel, screaming, and begging to be let go by the officer who had him pinned down for two minutes.
The teenager was originally arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, but all charges were later dropped and Manuel Van Santen, the arresting officer, was put on administrative leave.
The whole ordeal began when the boy began to throw a tantrum because he was not being allowed to go back to school. Immanuel was screaming and had knocked over a garbage can, Officer Van Santen arrived, and Immanuel was yelling and tried to move past Mr Van Santen when he arrived, that’s when the deputy tackled him and pinned him down in a headlock.
CJ, another young man who was staying in the group home, was eating his breakfast in the next room, when he noticed the altercation, and began recording on his cellphone after Immanuel was tackled, according to Mr. Feinman, the teenager’s lawyer.
CJ was also detained, though he was not formerly charged.
“These are boys that have already been traumatized, and we are just adding trauma upon trauma, abuse upon abuse the deputy treated Immanuel with contempt, especially given how old he is, his physical condition and what he had already been through,” Mr Feinman said. “He did not pause to think for a moment that the boy deserved to be treated like a child and a human being.”
All of the boys in the group home are in the custody of the Arizona Department of Child Safety, Mr Feinman said. They live there because they have been abused, neglected or abandoned, he added.
