Thursday, March 28, 2024

California Cops Wrongly Shoot Black Teen, Remove Bullets from His Back ‘By Hand’

police - backs to camera

*Cops in the Bay Area city of Hayward, California wrongly shot a teenager twice in the back and then removed the bullets “by hand,” according to a federal lawsuit. 

The lawsuit claims the officers shot the unnamed 17-year-old in the back in June, removed the bullets themselves before paramedics arrived, and then dropped him off at a juvenile facility, the Mercury News reported.

“It’s barbaric, the way in which they tried to minimize the harm they caused this young man,” Adante Pointer, the lawyer for the teen’s family, told the newspaper. “It’s completely inappropriate and fortunately it didn’t cause more severe damage to him,” the attorney added.

Pointer posted photos of the teen’s wounds on Twitter. Check out the post below. 

READ MORE: VIDEO: Police Dodge Bullets to Make Arrest

“The cops did this to a kid when the eyes of the world were looking!” Pointer wrote. “Imagine what happens when NO ONE is looking!”

Here’s more from the NY Post

The lawsuit claims the teenager fell asleep in his cousin’s car near the scene of looting in the midst of Black Lives Matter protests in the city. Police said cops were dispatched to a CVS pharmacy in the area on reports of looting. The teenager, however, claims he woke up around 4 a.m. on June 1, frightened and confused, and drove past the cops — who opened fire and struck him in the back.

According to the report, Hayward Police Officer Samuel Tomlinson believed the teen was going to hit him with the vehicle, so he opened fire.  The second cop, Officer Stephen Akacsos, also fired, believing “his partner had either been shot or struck by the vehicle,” Hayward police said in a statement.

After being shot, the teen crashed the car and fled but police found him hiding in bushes. He was arrested and charged for assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer, but the charge was later dropped.

“I feel like all they saw was a black face and just believed he did (a crime),” said the teen’s mother, Jael Barnes. “Not only does he now have these physical wounds, he has these mental wounds as well, which will never go away.”

What happened to the bullets removed by the cops remains a mystery. 

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