Minneapolis Star Tribune
MINNEAPOLIS — A woman whose 15-year-old son was fatally shot by a Minneapolis police officer in 2004 has now filed a lawsuit accusing two officers of the city’s park police of breaking her 12-year-old son’s arm last spring.
Tahisha Williams-Brewer filed suit in U.S. District Court on Dec. 9, alleging that Minneapolis park police officers Keith Rowland and James Cannon used excessive force against her 12-year-old son while ordering him to leave a park.
The suit alleges that they violated federal law against unreasonable seizures and that they discriminated against him because he is black.
The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board said in a statement Tuesday that it believes the suit contains “many inaccuracies” and that the officers’ actions were “appropriate” and followed “proper police procedures.” Attorneys for the park police said they couldn’t comment because they had not seen the suit.
“The officers conduct ... was simply excessive,” Stephen Smith, Williams-Brewer’s attorney. “As a parent of two children, I find it extremely difficult to believe that a kid such as this young Williams child had acted in a way that would warrant that type of excessive physical contact.”
Williams-Brewer’s 15-year-old son Courtney Williams was killed in 2004 by a Minneapolis police officer, who said he thought the boy had a firearm. A pellet gun resembling a .45-caliber pistol was found near the boy’s body.
A Hennepin County grand jury declined to bring charges against the officer, Scott Mars.
According to Williams-Brewer’s lawsuit:
Her 12-year-old son, identified only by his initials, was at Creekview Park with friends one day in May when an adult staff member said, “You’re gay.” The boy responded by repeating the taunt to the staff member, who later asked him to leave, threatened to call police and pushed him out a door.
Confronted outside by the park police officers, the boy told them that even though he was leaving, he shouldn’t have to because he didn’t do anything.
The officers grabbed the boy by his backpack and said “This is not a debate. ... You leave the park.” As he tried to turn around to look at the officers, they each grabbed him by an arm. When one officer “forcefully twisted” his left arm and pulled it behind his back, the boy “heard and felt an immediate ‘snap’ in his left upper arm.” It was later determined that the arm was broken in four places.
While the boy’s arm has healed, the effects of the encounter and his brother’s death will last, Smith said.
“The psychological scars can last a lifetime,” he said. “The fact is that my client has endured as much tragedy in the 12 years that he’s been on this Earth as many people may endure throughout a lifetime.”
The suit asks for unspecified damages from the Park Board and the officers. The suit alleges that they violated her son’s rights under the Fourth Amendment and the Minnesota Human Rights Act. The suit asks for medical and legal expenses. It alleges that the two officers seized her son “in a manner that was negligent, careless, reckless and illegal.”
In its statement Tuesday, the Park Board said it is “confident that facts presented during litigation will demonstrate that the actions taken by the park police officers were appropriate and within prescribed policies and procedures.”
Smith said Williams-Brewer wants justice.
“Justice in this case would be holding these officers accountable for their conduct,” Smith said. “But if you don’t keep in check conduct that is objectively excessive, then the message that that sends to law enforcement is that they need not be concerned with the civil rights of ordinary citizens.”
Copyright 2009 Minneapolis Star Tribune