Deaths and Injuries in Police Custody

[Andrea]

SAPD officer pulled out woman's tampon, did vaginal search on side of road, lawsuit claims

https://www.ksat.com/news/sapd-officer-pulled-out-womans-tampon-did-vaginal-search-on-side-of-road-lawsuit-claims

A lawsuit filed in federal court Friday claims a San Antonio Police officer pulled a woman's tampon out and searched her vaginal cavity along the shoulder of a public street in 2016.

Natalie D. Simms' attorney filed the lawsuit against the City of San Antonio and a female officer, identified as Mara Wilson, stating that the search violated Simms' constitutional rights.

According to the filing, Simms was approached by officers while sitting on a curb, talking on the phone and waiting for her boyfriend. The lawsuit claims Simms consented to a search of her car, which was parked across the street from where she was sitting, and that authorities found no illegal items.

Then, the lawsuit alleges, authorities called a female officer, Wilson, to the scene to search Simms.

The lawsuit details parts of the conversations between Simms and Wilson, recorded from Wilson's body camera. According to the court documents, Simms and Wilson went back and forth about the kind of clothes she was wearing before Wilson began searching her vaginal cavity.
The following is a quotation of a conversation between Simms and Wilson, included in the lawsuit, leading up to the search:

Wilson: Stand up straight. Kind of lean back a little bit. (Inaudible) This
is -- these are shorts? Oh, it's a skirt-short?
Simms: Yes.
Wilson: Oh, hell. Okay. Look straight ahead, okay. Spread your legs. I'm
gonna ask you, do you have anything down here before I reach down here?
Simms: No. I don't have nothing in my --.
Wilson: Okay.

The lawsuit alleges Wilson assured she would not "reach," rather "just look," but that Simms kept flinching.
The following is a quotation of a conversation between Simms and Wilson, included in the lawsuit, during the search:

Wilson: Uh-huh. Are you wearing a tampon, too?
Simms: Yes.
Wilson: Okay. I just want to make sure that's what it is. Is that a tampon?
Simms: Come on. Yes.
Wilson: Huh? Is that a tampon?
Simms: It's full of blood, right? Why would you do that?

The lawsuit alleges Simms asked why she had to be searched on the side of a road and not at "the station," to which Wilson said "Which (police station)? We got a whole bunch of them."

Court documents report that Wilson told a detective she was "searching everything," and had removed Simms' tampon because she "just wanted to make sure there wasn't anything in there."

The document states Simms never consented to the vaginal cavity search and that authorities never found anything illegal during their search. She was allowed to leave.

An internal investigation, the lawsuit states, revealed the officer that called Wilson to the scene "never indicated to do a cavity search." Court documents state Wilson retired on May 1.

Simms' attorney is asking for a jury trial.

The city's attorney said his office is still reviewing the lawsuit and had no comment Sunday.

[Andrea]

Stephon Clark protester hit by Sacramento County sheriff's vehicle during march

http://www.sacbee.com/news/article207598209.html

A protester at a vigil Saturday night for Stephon Clark was hit by a Sacramento County Sheriff's Department vehicle on Florin Road, the latest tense moment between law enforcement and activists following the March 18 police shooting death of the unarmed black man.

Witnesses and the struck protester said the sheriff's vehicle left the scene.

The collision, captured on video by Guy Danilowitz of the National Lawyers Guild, occurred as protesters marched down Florin Road in south Sacramento.

The activist struck was Wanda Cleveland, a regular at Sacramento City Council meetings. She lay immobile on her side in the street until a fire department crew arrived to pick her up.

Cleveland was released from Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento Medical Center after midnight, with bruises on her arm and the back of her head.

"He never even stopped. It was a hit and run. If I did that I’d be charged," Cleveland said at the hospital. "It's disregard for human life."

In a press release early Sunday morning, sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Shaun Hampton confirmed the accident had occurred. The release said two sheriff's department vehicles were surrounded at about 8:40 p.m. by protesters who were yelling and kicking the vehicles.

"Vandals in the crowd" caused "scratches, dents, and a shattered rear window" to a sheriff's vehicle, the release said. The release did not address why the vehicle that struck Cleveland did not stop, and Hampton did not immediately respond to a request for further details.

Dominique Poydras, who was attending the vigil, said a group of protesters had surrounded a Sheriff's Department vehicle and a few were throwing eggs at it.

Based on footage captured by Channel 10, a sheriff's vehicle pulled up, lights flashing, as protesters marched in the street. About three dozen people then surrounded the vehicle and kept chanting.

The sheriff's deputy four times sounded his siren and said, "Back away from my vehicle." He slowly pulled forward and left the scene. A second sheriff's vehicle followed and struck Cleveland, sending her to the curb, the Channel 10 video shows.

Cleveland said that when the first vehicle said to clear out, she started to walk toward the curb because her arthritis was making her knees weak. The second vehicle driver made no request, she said, and abruptly accelerated and hit her in the knee, sending her into the air.

"I heard wheels spin. And then I saw her body flung to the curb," Tifanei Ressl-Moyer, another legal observer who witnessed the incident, said. "The vehicle sped off and some protesters went after them."

The sheriff's department release said the patrol vehicle was traveling at "slow speeds" when the collision occurred.

[Andrea]

Video shows police repeatedly punching man pinned to street as he cries, 'Why?'

http://www.kcra.com/article/video-shows-police-repeatedly-punching-man-pinned-to-street-as-he-cries-why/19667978

Police in Texas are investigating a weekend arrest in which an officer was caught on video kneeling on a black man’s back and punching him while another officer kneed him.

In the 50-second video of Saturday’s arrest posted on Facebook by the Next Generation Action Network, which organizes demonstrations against police abuse, two Fort Worth police officers can be seen restraining Forrest Curry, 35, as he lies face-down in the street. A white officer kneels on Curry’s back and repeatedly punches him as he cries, “Why the f--- are you punching me? Why?” A black officer next to Curry knees him repeatedly in his side.

Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald said in a statement Sunday that the officers were responding to a call for backup from fire department personnel, who told the officers that Curry “appeared to be intoxicated and had attempted to assault them.”

It took three officers and one supervisor about five minutes to subdue Curry, Fitzgerald said.

Curry, 35, was booked into Tarrant County Corrections Center on charges of resisting officers and evading arrest. He was released on bond Monday afternoon.

One of his attorneys, L. Chris Stewart of Atlanta, said Curry has a history of seizures and had one Saturday while walking that caused him to collapse in the street.

When Fort Worth emergency medical staff arrived in response to a call for help, Curry came to and, disoriented, took off running.

“It’s just sad that in a medical emergency, (police) couldn’t have been more patient or understanding,” Stewart said.

It is the latest in a string of confrontations that have raised questions about the Fort Worth Police Department’s use of force policies.

Two lawsuits related to the use of force by city police officers were filed in December.

In one of them, Jeremi Rainwater, who is white, contends that an officer shot him in the back without cause and several other officers colluded to cover up the flawed police response.

A grand jury that reviewed the officers’ behavior in the 2015 shooting did not file any charges against them.

In the other, Jacqueline Craig, who is black, is suing over a December 2016 arrest in which a Fort Worth officer wrestled her and her teenage daughter to the ground. Those arrests were captured on cellphone video.

Charges against Craig and her daughter were dropped, and the officer served a 10-day suspension for violating departmental policies.

In addition, last December, a Fort Worth police sergeant was fired for ordering a rookie officer to use a stun gun on a woman who had called for help during a domestic dispute. Fitzgerald released a 12-minute video from the body camera of the rookie officer that he said showed the sergeant’s behavior was “absolutely unacceptable.”

[Andrea]

Texas Officer Indicted In Brutal Beating of Black Man Who Was Just Waiting for His Ride at Hospital

http://atlantablackstar.com/2018/04/03/texas-officer-indicted-brutal-beating-black-man-just-waiting-ride-outside-hospital/

A Dallas-Fort Wort officer has been indicted on charges stemming from the brutal beating of a Black man at a local hospital in November 2016.

Officer John Preston Romer Jr., 38, was indicted earlier this month on charges of official oppression, making a false report to a peace officer, and aggravated perjury, The Dallas Morning News reported. He was released from the Tarrant County Jail on March 15 after posting bail.

The Nov. 5 incident unfolded at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital, where Romer, who was working private security at the time, encountered 21-year-old Henry Newson. According to NBC Dallas-Fortworth, Newson had just spent two days in the hospital for a stomach ailment and was waiting for his mom to pick him up.

Surveillance footage of the shocking incident shows Romer approach the Black man and immediately begin questioning him.

“I’m just trying to figure out what you’re doing,” the security officer asks, to which Newson replies he’s waiting for a ride.

The incident quickly escalates from there as Romer continues pressing the young man about being at the hospital.

“Hey get off the phone. Shut up. Get off the phone. Let’s go,” Romer is heard saying in the footage before placing his hand on Newson’s chest and shoving him backward, seeming to take offense to the man calling him “bro.”

“Bro?” Romer repeats before punching Newson in the head, placing him in a chokehold and wrestling him to the ground. Other security officers are seen rushing to help Romer.

Newson was arrested and charged with trespassing and resisting arrest, both of which were later dropped, according to The Dallas Morning News. He spent two days behind bars.

As for Romer, the-then officer tried to escape his wrongdoings by telling investigators in 2017 that his use of force was approved. He later lied to a grand jury when he said he’d informed Newson he was under arrest before punching him and forcing him to the ground. Surveillance footage of the incident contradicted his story, however. Romer was subsequently suspended from the force.

Newson is now suing the city and the hospital for the “racially motivated attack.”

“He doesn’t resist, he doesn’t fight back,” Newson’s attorney, Matthew Bobo, said. “It was fast. It was violent and there was nothing that would have indicated that that should have happened or was going to happen. But it happened immediately. There was no provocation by Mr. Newson.”

Bobo also questioned why the Fort Worth police department took no action against the officer following the incident. NBC Dalls-Fort Worth reported that Romer remained on the street until December and the department didn’t strip him of his gun and badge until two weeks ago when he was indicted.

“The first time somebody ever saw that video, they should have put him on a desk, taken him off,” Bobo argued. “They should have terminated him, quite frankly. I mean, period.”

[Andrea]

Man Arrested After Refusing to Leave Hospital Dies Hours Later in Jail

https://themighty.com/2018/01/marconia-kessee-dies-police-custody-discharged-norman-regional-hospital-oklahoma/

An Oklahoma man’s death has been called into question following the release of police bodycam footage last Tuesday. Marconia Kessee died in police custody after being discharged from Norman Regional Hospital on Jan. 16 in Norman, Oklahoma. He was arrested for trespassing after he was discharged from the hospital and refused to leave.

Kessee went to the emergency room for a headache, his uncle, Michael Washington, told Oklahoma’s News 4. “I wasn’t there, but I believe it in my heart that he refused to leave because he wasn’t treated and he felt that he needed more medication because his headache was still hurting him,” Washington said.

According to police body camera footage, the responding officers told Kessee he could seek shelter at the local Salvation Army. Kessee laid on the ground near the hospital entrance and was arrested.

“Here in about 15 seconds, I’m going to drag your [expletive] to the curb to get you off this property and then you can find your own way to the Salvation army. OK? Put your shoe on. I’m losing patience,” an officer says in the video. The footage later shows the officers dragging Kessee over to a police car.

While at Cleveland County Jail, police said Kessee tried to hurt himself, and was moved to a padded cell where he was checked on routinely. During one of these checks, Kessee was unresponsive and brought back to the same hospital, several hours after he was previously discharged.

Kessee’s cause of death has not been released. Both the hospital and police department are launching their own investigations into his death.

“Norman Regional Health System is saddened by this loss of life. We are internally reviewing this case,” a representative for the hospital told The Mighty.

An administrative review of the officers’ actions is also underway. Both officers have been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.

Washington told News 4 his nephew was diagnosed with ADHD and bipolar disorder as a child, and that his nephew should have been taken to a crisis center if he was “wigged out,” which is what the hospital security officer requested when calling 911 to have Kessee removed from the hospital.

“We believe that there was no actual mental evaluation, we believe that the doctors, hospitals, did not review or take the physical assessment of my nephew and that they are partly responsible, and they will be held accountable,” Washington told News 4.

[Andrea]

Family Calls on Police to Release Video in Fatal Shooting of Savannah Prom King

https://www.thedailybeast.com/family-calls-on-police-to-release-video-in-fatal-shooting-of-savannah-prom-king?via=twitter_page

Georgia police say Ricky Boyd was wielding a BB gun when officers shot and killed him at his grandmother’s house one January morning.

But Boyd’s family claims he was unarmed—and that authorities showed them body-camera footage that proves Boyd’s hands were raised. Video of the fatal encounter, which involved a group of Savannah officers, has not been released.

The 20-year-old restaurant worker died Jan. 23, not long after he was gunned down on the concrete porch of his home in front of his grandmother and four siblings. Police say Boyd was a suspect in a local murder that occurred two days before.

Jameillah Smiley, Boyd’s mother, says her son was innocent and is demanding authorities release the body-cam footage and clear his name.

“I haven’t been out here marching, protesting. I’m not for all of that right now. I just want answers to what happened to Ricky Boyd III,” Smiley told The Daily Beast.

“That’s my son. He was my everything,” she said through tears.

Will Claiborne, an attorney for Smiley, said Savannah police have refused to release video or copies of the incident report.

So Claiborne and Smiley have published a YouTube video of their own demanding Savannah’s police chief Mark Revenew release the body-camera footage and identify the other officers involved in Boyd’s death.

Smiley’s fight for justice comes days after White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called police-involved shootings of African-American citizens “a local matter” that “should be left up to the local authorities,” not the feds.

And after Louisiana’s attorney general declined to charge officers for shooting Alton Sterling—a 37-year-old father of five—six times at point-blank range in July 2016. The officer who killed Sterling called him a “stupid motherfucker” after spraying him with bullets, according to video released last week.

“What are we supposed to do when local officials lie?” Claiborne asked of the White House’s apparent position on police-involved shootings of minority suspects. “Explain to me how that is supposed to work.”

Claiborne said Boyd was “wrongfully implicated” in the murder of 24-year-old Balil Whitfield, who was found shot to death in his vehicle. (A spokeswoman for the Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police Department said the Whitfield investigation remains open—a fact which Claiborne claims shows cops had the wrong guy.)

“He has no prior criminal record. He was a good kid. We want his name cleared. He did not commit that homicide. He did not shoot a police officer. He did not come out the door with the gun,” Claiborne told The Daily Beast.

“If the suspect is dead, why in the world is this still an open investigation?” the attorney said, adding that Whitfield’s killer “is still walking free.”

Savannah police and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) declined to comment for this story. Bill Bodrey, a special agent with GBI, said the probe into Boyd’s death was referred to the district attorney’s office.

A spokeswoman for Chatham County DA Meg Heap said their office received the case file this week and it’s under review.

According to a GBI press release, a group of officers belonging to Savannah PD and the U.S. Marshals Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force, arrived at the Marian Circle home around 6:15 a.m. to arrest Boyd for Whitfield’s slaying.

Several of Boyd’s relatives exited the front door. When Boyd came out, he confronted cops “with what appeared to be a firearm,” GBI stated. “However, it was later determined to be a CO2 powered BB air gun.”

Officers fired at Boyd after he raised the BB gun in their direction, GBI claims. Boyd died soon after he was transported to the hospital.

Sgt. Sean Wilson of the Savannah-Chatham police department was shot during the incident and released. (Claiborne says this was friendly fire, not from Boyd. In January, Bodrey told the Associated Press that Wilson “did suffer gunshot wounds as well as other possible injuries.” But when asked if Wilson was shot by fellow officers, Bodrey said, “It’s still being investigated.”)

Authorities haven’t released an autopsy report, nor a cause of death or information on where and how many times Boyd was shot. Still, no one disputes Boyd was killed by law enforcement, Claiborne said.

Boyd had multiple gunshot wounds to his body, including one to his left hand, Smiley told The Daily Beast.

Meanwhile, Claiborne says cops are trying to pin a BB gun on Boyd, who didn’t own one. Authorities haven’t disclosed where the BB gun was found, he said.

The attorney’s YouTube video shows a photo taken by a neighbor, who spotted the BB gun underneath a pine tree near his house. This photo suggests the BB gun was 43 feet away from Boyd’s body, Claiborne said.

“If law enforcement’s version of this story is to be believed, he committed the [Whitfield] homicide with an actual gun, not a BB gun. Then less than two days later, they go to arrest him and he’s in the house. He does not have a firearm, but instead decides to calmly walk out the door holding a BB gun … it just doesn’t make any sense,” Claiborne said.

“And then after they shoot him, he throws the gun 43 feet. If he’s trying to commit suicide by cop, why would he throw the gun 43 feet away from himself?”

Police claim there’s only one body-cam video, despite at least 10 officers participating in the deadly arrest, Claiborne said.

Smiley met with a GBI agent, who showed her a copy of the body camera video, at the courthouse on March 31.

One detective allegedly told Smiley, “Ma’am, your son wanted to die,” and that Boyd emerged from the house hoisting a gun.

Smiley then told the officer, “Okay, I want to see this tape.”

She watched the footage on a laptop and was told to pay close attention, because the encounter escalated pretty quickly.

“I see Ricky appear,” Smiley recalls of the video. “He was wiping his eye and walked out the door.” Boyd was facing the officers and had his arms outstretched, she said. His palms were up and at waist level.

Someone said something to Boyd that made him turn toward a neighbor’s house, Smiley says. “Before you notice anything, you see my son’s hands coming together and then he falls down. Immediately. It wasn’t a second before he made that turn and they was shooting my child,” Smiley said.

Smiley said she saw no firearm or BB gun in the video clip.

“They were trying to tell me my son wanted to die,” Smiley said of one detective, who allegedly brought a BB gun to prove the shooting was justified.

“They didn’t have to kill my son. They did not even give him a chance at all,” Smiley said.

Smiley said Boyd was her first child, whom she had when she was 15 years old. “I worked ever since I was 16. Fifteen going on 16,” Smiley said, choking up. “I made sure Ricky had everything he needed. Anything he needed.”

She described Boyd as an old soul and hard worker, who loved basketball and cowboy movies. He worked at the Crab Shack, a restaurant on Tybee Island.

Before he graduated from Savannah High School in May 2016, Boyd was voted Prom King, as well as “best dressed.”

The mother said she recently received certification from a local college to become an office specialist. But she doesn’t know if she’ll attend graduation next month, now that her oldest son won’t be there to see her.

“I gotta push myself, because I wanted my son to be there, to let him know he could do it, too,” Smiley said.

[Andrea]

Trooper tases teen on ATV. Police video reveals what happens next.

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2018/04/13/police-video-michigan-state-police-taser/499525002/

As 15-year-old Damon Grimes lay dying in the middle of Rossini Drive last August, Michigan State Police Trooper Mark Bessner crouched over his body.

“He’s got a pulse, and he’s breathing. He’s unconscious,” Bessner said into his police radio, adding later, “He slowed down. We tased him, and he crashed out.”

Grimes had been driving about 35 mph on an ATV when Bessner — a passenger in a moving patrol car — fired his stun gun at the teen during a chase on Detroit’s east side.

Over 25 hours of video and audio detail an ATV crash in Detroit involving 15-year-old Damon Grimes, who was allegedly tased by Michigan State Police trooper Mark Bessner during a chase in August of 2017.

Grimes slammed into the back of a parked truck and flew off his ATV. The impact of the crash ripped gashes into his forehead, both cheeks and upper lip and dislocated his skull. Doctors pronounced him dead on arrival at St. John Hospital.

Bessner, who resigned from his job amid a criminal investigation, has been charged with murder.

To better understand what happened the evening of Aug. 26, the Free Press used the Michigan Freedom of Information Act to request extensive records related to the crash. It received almost 11 hours of footage captured by cameras mounted in patrol cars, on nearby businesses and worn by Detroit Police officers, who also responded to the incident.

The Free Press also obtained almost 16 hours of audio recordings from police radios and phones as well as more than 600 pages of documents and more than 500 photos. Michigan State Police took six months to provide those records, which were heavily redacted. For example, State Police withheld all footage captured from the camera in Bessner's squad car, and also blurred the video of Grimes.

Still, the video and audio files that were turned over by MSP show elements of the chase and its aftermath from dozens of angles and perspectives with candid, real-time comments provided by police officers seeing the events unfold in front of them.

Communities across the nation are equipping officers with body cameras to document police contacts with the public. Detroit Police began wearing them in 2016 but little footage from their cameras has become public — until now.

The chase is on

"Give us priority," Bessner is heard saying into a police radio. "Chasing an ATV east on Rossini from Reno. It's a red quad. Black male, black shirt."

A security camera mounted on the Embassy Coney Island restaurant at the corner of Gratiot and Rossini was pointed at the parking lot, but in the background, it showed a view of Rossini where Grimes' ATV appears followed closely by a State Police patrol car. Just as the ATV exits the camera frame, it bounces back into the frame after striking a parked Ford F-150 pickup. The security camera footage didn't include sound, but police cameras did.

“He flipped,” Detroit Police Officer J. Williams said before quickly reporting the accident over his radio.

Williams and his partner, Officer Cameron Boersma, pulled up about 20 seconds after the crash. As they stepped out of their police cruiser, Bessner was bent over Grimes, who lay in the middle of the street beside the pickup, his overturned ATV nearby.

Michigan State Police were patrolling in area that day as part of the Secure Cities Partnership, an initiative launched in 2012 to bring additional police resources to high-crime areas of Detroit, Flint, Saginaw and Pontiac.

The videos the Free Press obtained show a view from another security camera, and appear to depict the overhead emergency lights on Bessner’s squad car activating 24 seconds after the crash. State Police policy requires troopers to turn on their emergency lights, sirens and in-car video recording systems during a pursuit.

Asked this week, a spokeswoman for the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office wouldn't comment on whether the lights were on during the chase, saying she couldn't discuss evidence before trial.

Around the time of the crash, State Police issued two news releases saying the lights had been on during the chase. Asked again this week, First Lt. Mike Shaw, a department spokesman, declined to comment because the criminal case is pending.

He said the cameras typically are activated in one of several ways. They begin recording automatically when a trooper turns on the emergency lights. Troopers also can activate them by pushing a button on the dash or by turning on a microphone worn on the trooper's belt.

“Have EMS step it up,” a person at the scene urged soon after the first two Detroit police officers arrived. As police waited for the ambulance, Grimes’ condition quickly worsened.

“I don’t know if he’s got a pulse anymore,” a voice is heard over the radio.

As another Detroit patrol car arrived, officers radioed for another update on the ambulance, noting Grimes' pulse was weakening.

Officers disgusted

“His pulse is weakening because he was on that fuckin' thing, and you chased his ass,” Detroit Police officer Kimberly Buckner muttered to herself as she stepped out of her vehicle, her body camera recording every step and word.

As she walked toward Grimes, an unidentified Detroit police officer reached out his hand to cover the lens of Buckner's body camera quietly saying: "They fuckin' tased his ass while he was cruisin'."

The body camera views come only from Detroit Police. State Police don't have them.

State Police reported over the radio that “he’s fading fast.” The ambulance arrived about seven minutes after the crash — about a minute faster than the city’s average response time for life-threatening calls.

By then, a crowd had gathered in the neighborhood watching as ambulance crews loaded Grimes onto a stretcher. Witnesses recorded the scene on cell phones, some questioning the pace at which first responders were moving.

“He is dead because if he wasn’t they’d be rushing,” a woman said on a witness recording obtained by the Free Press.

'A bad-ass 15'

Officer Emily Stephenson's body cam shows her approaching a fellow Detroit Police officer, whose name is not clear from the video. She asks whether police should escort the ambulance to the hospital.

“Hell no,” he responded, noting the ambulance has lights and sirens, and escorts are reserved for police. “If an officer was shot, we’ll do that.”

Shortly after the ambulance pulled away, Buckner approached that same officer and said Grimes' mother needed to be at the hospital.

“That’s a grown-ass man,” he said of Grimes, a 6-foot-1, 234-pound teenager.

“No, he’s 15,” she replied. “He’s 15 years old.”

“He’s a bad-ass 15,” the male officer said, later adding: "No sympathy at all for bullshit. Motherfucker wanna be grown, ya act grown, you gotta fuckin' deal with it.”

Detroit Police Chief James Craig said Wednesday that supervisors weren't aware of the officer's comments until the Free Press asked about them.

After reviewing the body camera video himself, Craig ordered an internal investigation and pulled the 22-year veteran from his position of neighborhood resource officer. He has been reassigned to a non-patrol duty.

Craig called the remarks insensitive and said he expects better of officers at a critical scene.

"It's troubling, especially when you talk about a young man who lost his life," Craig said.

Without defending the comments, Craig said the officer who made them may mistakenly have thought Grimes' injuries were not life-threatening.

Craig declined to name the officer, citing the investigation. The Free Press identified him from a photograph as Neighborhood Police Officer Aubrey Wade. When reached by telephone Wednesday, the officer declined comment, saying he was speaking to his lawyer at the time.

Other Detroit Police officers at the scene appeared more sensitive, trying to get Grimes' mother to the hospital to see her son. One appeared to express disgust with the use of a stun gun in that situation.

“They tased his ass while he was driving,” Buckner whispered to Stephenson, “causing him to flip and crash.”

Unanswered questions

Many details surrounding the chase remain unclear because Michigan State Police heavily redacted the written reports in addition to the videos and audios.

In a typed report Berger filed after the incident, he said that he and Bessner were on Reno near Fairmount when they observed Grimes popping a "wheelie" on his ATV.

“The 4-wheeler ATV continued to approach our fully marked MSP patrol vehicle at a high rate of speed southbound Reno St. as I was driving northbound Reno St.,” Berger wrote.

State Police redacted what Berger said happened after that. Later, Berger's report said EMS loaded Grimes onto a backboard then a cot. An autopsy concluded Grimes died of blunt force head trauma.

“After EMS arrived on scene and transported the ATV driver, Tpr. Bessner and I followed critical incident protocol and separated ourselves from other troopers and sergeants,” wrote Berger, who was later suspended.

Witness reports

Residents in the neighborhood recorded the aftermath on cell phone video, voicing their emotions.

“They don’t give a damn,” a man said while police investigated after sundown. “They’re gonna still go home to their wife and kids and still get paid.”

People in the area said police can't be trusted.

“They’re supposed to protect and serve,” a man’s voice is recorded saying.

One witness also reporting seeing a piece of a police Taser, and quickly concluded that it was used on Grimes. Witnesses spotted a pair of earbuds, which a police photo shows lying in a pool of blood.

Police and prosecutors would not say whether Grimes was wearing the earbuds when he crashed.

That evening, as a Detroit firefighter hosed blood from the street, a woman, who identified herself as Grimes' cousin, said they are cleaning up the blood.

“Unbelievable,” she said in the video. “Fifteen years old — killed by the State Police. Unbelievable.

Murder charge, lawsuit

Within hours of the crash, Detroit Police brass and Grimes' family demanded answers about the teen's death.

“You guys had a pursuit today ... and now our bosses want some information,” a Detroit police sergeant said to a State Police dispatcher in a recorded conversation.

Detroit Police policy prohibits high-speed chases for traffic offenses and misdemeanors but State Police allowed them at the time. After the crash, State Police announced a policy review and suspended chases in Detroit involving traffic or misdemeanor violations. That policy was later adopted statewide.

State Police halted their Detroit patrols in September after Grimes’ death and they have not resumed.

Craig told the Free Press that he and State Police Col. Kriste Etue decided together that, “given the seriousness of this offense, that the Secure Cities aspect, meaning troopers being deployed in the 9th Precinct, would be terminated for now."

When Grimes' family sought answers about his death, State Police told them the case was still being investigated, and that reports are available under the Freedom of Information Act, according to documents obtained by the Free Press.

State Police took six months to provide the records the Free Press requested under FOIA.

By then, Southfield attorney Geoffrey Fieger had filed an excessive force lawsuit on behalf of Grimes' family. Fieger told the Free Press on Wednesday that he has seen unredacted video that shows the Taser incident.

"It's horrible," Fieger said. "It shows him shooting ... using him for target practice."

Fieger declined to show the unredacted video to the Free Press. Last month, a judge issued an order that prohibits the parties from sharing material from MSP with anyone other than those involved in the lawsuit.

"There is no defense to this case," Fieger said. "The defense is 'How much do we have to pay?' ”

Fieger also criticized Detroit Police for not doing more to try to stop the chase that ended Grimes' life.

"I think they were watching it," Fieger said, adding that the disparaging comments from the Detroit police officer were insensitive and uncaring.

A federal lawsuit filed by Grimes' family is proceeding with a trial expected to begin in summer 2019.

In December, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy announced second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter charges against Bessner.

“Trooper Bessner unnecessarily deployed his Taser at Mr. Grimes without legal justification or excuse as Mr. Grimes was traveling at least 35 to 40 miles per hour,” Worthy said when she announced the charges Dec. 20.

Worthy declined to charge Berger and Sgt. Jacob Liss, a supervisor. Both those men remain suspended amid an internal investigation, Shaw said.

Bessner, a 44-year-old husband, father and lawyer, is free on bond and wearing a tether to track his movements. His criminal trial is scheduled to start July 9 in Wayne County Circuit Court.

Bessner's attorney, Richard Convertino, agreed to an interview, but then didn't respond to requests to schedule it.

Convertino previously called Grimes' death tragic, noting the teen drove the ATV “recklessly and dangerously” and “actively resisted and evaded arrest.”

“During the pursuit, Trooper Bessner was forced to make a split-second decision under circumstances on the scene and at the moment which was tense, uncertain and rapidly evolving,” Convertino told the Free Press in the e-mail, shortly after the crash.

Bessner has a history of using excessive force and has been reprimanded before for using his Taser inappropriately, including using the device on handcuffed suspects. The investigation into Bessner’s conduct shows that over a four-year span ending in 2017, he had 40 use of force incidents, 17 pursuits and five car accidents.

Shaw said use of force reports cover a broad range of contact between troopers and suspects, including things like wrestling someone to the ground, using pepper spray or a Taser, all the way up to using deadly force. The number of such contacts may vary based on a trooper's assignment, Shaw said.

"There's no way to look at that and say this is high, this is low," he said.
Neighbors outraged

Neighbors were outraged at the death of Grimes, who was about to begin ninth grade at Michigan Collegiate in Warren. School officials described him as a considerate student who excelled in science and math.

Four days after the crash, Berger said he returned to the area looking for the black Ford F-150 Grimes' barreled into and saw more than 100 people at the corner of Gratiot and Rossini — some on ATVs, golf carts and dirt bikes. News crews also were present.

Berger never got out of his patrol car.

“The large crowd of people were not pleased with our presence and began to taunt us by yelling and screaming at us,” his report said. “The large crowd displayed multiple hand gestures (middle fingers) with explicit language.”

MSP detectives interviewed residents as part of their investigation and can be heard on one audio recording, discussing what a local woman said about the crash.

“She’s like, 'All these people in here are wanting to talk about protesting the police. He drives this neighborhood recklessly all the time. Why didn’t he just stop?’ ” an investigator recalled her saying.

The woman's voice was redacted from the audio recording provided to the Free Press.

The detectives go on to say two people made bad decisions.

“It could have been handled differently on both sides as far as I’m concerned,” one of the men said. “Had I been out here chasing him … I guarantee I would have done it differently. Guaranteed, I would have done it differently.”