By Lisa Fernandez, San Jose Mercury News
Twin brothers, one of whom was shot in the back by Fremont police with a Taser X26, have requested an internal investigation to determine whether excessive force was used during a melee at a community park last Friday.
The twins, Farzan and Kayhan Sharifzada, both 17 and seniors at Mission San Jose High School, want an apology.
“Police, not all of them, but some of them, are getting out of hand in this country,” said their mother, Ateefa Sharifzada. “They are using the Tasers, not as a tool, but as a toy.”
Tasers have become a national controversy. Newspapers have published accounts linking various suspect deaths to Taser use. In San Jose, a Mercury News investigation in June called into question whether police were overusing the stun gun, employing it at a rate of once every other day during a 10-week period.
Palo Alto police have put off buying the weapons pending further study. The stun guns send 50,000 volts of electricity under the skin, which Steve Tuttle, a spokesman for the company -- Taser International -- said is completely safe.
At issue in Fremont is whether the twins were complying with an officer’s request last Friday to leave the scene of a large fight at Old Mission Park. The twins contend they were not part of the melee, showing up only by coincidence.
Fremont police spokesman Bill Veteran outlined the course of events as described to him by fellow officers. He did not identify the twins by name because they are minors. However, the Sharifzada family agreed to let the Mercury News print their names. The following is an account of their versions of what happened on the night in question. Officer Adam Carpenter asked Farzan three times to turn off the car engine before the teen finally did. But Carpenter said Farzan wouldn’t turn off his engine.
Carpenter said he went for Farzan’s throat only after the teen grabbed Carpenter’s hands as the officer reached inside the car to turn the ignition off.
Farzan countered that his hands brushed against the officer’s just as he was attempting to turn off his Honda’s engine, and that’s when Carpenter punched him in the mouth. He admits he spit and swore at the officer after this encounter.
Two other officers shot Farzan with a Taser -- three darts landing in his back. They say he was resisting being handcuffed. Farzan contends that he has a bad back and was jerking away in pain as an officer aggressively twisted his arm behind his back.
Sharifzada said her boys are good sons who don’t drink or do drugs, and have cared for her since she fell and broke her neck last year. Their extended family emigrated from Afghanistan in the 1980s and live in an apartment complex they own together.
The Mercury News reviewed on Thursday handwritten statements from 13 students who witnessed the fight and corroborate the twins’ story. Sharifzada plans to present the statements in juvenile court, where her sons will appear to face misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest.
Once a citizen’s complaint is formally lodged, police will investigate. According to police spokeswoman Sheila Tajima-Shadle, who also handles internal affairs, an investigation often doesn’t begin immediately because the twins’ attorneys probably will tell them not to talk to police until their other charges have been settled.
Fremont police do not have a citizens’ police review board. The citizen who complains will receive notice of any disciplinary action taken against a police officer but will not be told what that discipline was.
Last year, there were 14 citizen complaints made against the 200-plus officer department. Of those, two were sustained. In addition, there were 10 internal investigations; nine were sustained.