Deaths and Injuries in Police Custody

[Andrea]

Video Shows Cop Shooting Unarmed Man Through Police Car Window

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/panhandler-shot-philly-officer_n_5ce6ac5ce4b0db9c299423aa?section=politic s&utm_source=politics_fb&ncid=fcbklnkushpmg0000001 3&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=hp_fb_pages&fbc lid=IwAR35JFgT_zb8T0V6ZclxizBLqtFxSjGx0N9m5NSouSod bERhTq0HXGMYSaw

A Philadelphia man is in critical condition after a plainclothes police detective shot him through a car window, authorities said.

The unidentified Philadelphia officer fired his gun four times at the man Monday night after he said the man approached his unmarked police vehicle with his arms extended forward and his hands together. According to the police, the detective thought the man was an armed carjacker.

“The detective indicated he believed that the male was going to rob him,” authorities said in a statement to the media. Investigators did not find a firearm at the scene.

Surveillance video taken from a nearby business captured the incident just before 9 p.m. in Kensington. It shows the man passing several cars stopped in traffic before a puff of smoke appears and he collapses to the ground.

Local outlets have identified the man as 28-year-old Joel Johnson. His family told ABC station WPVI that he has special needs and often panhandles for change.

Johnson is known to extend his arms and rub his fingers together while asking for change, locals told The Philadelphia Inquirer, suggesting that that is what he was doing before being shot.

Brian Cardoza, 24, who lives near the scene, told WHYY-FM that he was drawn outside to what he first thought were fireworks.

“We ran over, and it was the homeless guy we always seen asking for quarters — not for much,” he told the local radio station.

Cardoza said after the man was shot he was immediately handcuffed, searched and put inside of a police car while bleeding from his stomach.

“They pick him up, take him to the sidewalk, drop him on the sidewalk, open the door, and throw him inside the police car like he was garbage,” he said.

Johnson was taken to Temple University Hospital and last listed as being in critical but stable condition, police said. A hospital spokesperson declined to comment on Thursday, citing a request from the victim’s family.

The officer has been placed on desk duty amid an investigation into the shooting. He is only described as 29 years old and a member of the city’s police force since October of 2011.

Monday’s shooting is the fifth police shooting in the city this year, NBC Philadelphia reported.

[Andrea]

Another Family Says Chicago Police Pointed Guns at Children During Raid, Handcuffed 8-Year-Old

https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2019/05/28/another-family-says-chicago-police-pointed-guns-at-children-during-raid-handcuffed-8-year-old/#.XO9RfMsnHCd.twitter

Just before they began to get ready for school on a Friday morning, 8-year-old Royal Wilson, his siblings and his mother said they woke up to flashing lights and the sound of a bullhorn.

A swarm of heavily armed Chicago Police and SWAT officers surrounded their house, they said. They were there to execute a search warrant. It was just before 6 a.m. on March 15.

The family was terrified.

“They had their guns pointed at me and my children,” said Royal’s mother, Domonique. “I was very, very scared. Nervous.”

The Wilson family is one of many who have told CBS 2 Investigators that Chicago Police raided their homes and pointed guns at children.

At the time, the Wilson family didn’t know why police ordered them out of their home – in a single-file line with their hands up high. They did their best to obey every command.

“And [the officers said] ‘Walk, walk, walk toward the streets, keep up your hands,’” Domonique added. As she spoke, she and her children demonstrated how police ordered them to exit their home.

It got worse, they said. They saw police officers take out handcuffs.

First, Domonique was cuffed.

Then, police clasped cuffs around Royal’s wrists too.

“They made me stand up straight and hands just behind my back, and they had [the handcuffs] tight,” Royal said. “My mom and my brother told them, I’m a little kid, can you please take them off?”

The children, including Royal, his 9-year-old brother and 6-year-old sister, were crying. Domonique’s adult sons, their girlfriends and a grandchild were also there.

It was 37 degrees, windy and drizzling as the family stood outside in the street – Royal and his mom, with their hands behind their backs, remained handcuffed.

“I didn’t know what was going to happen. I was just scared, my legs were shaking. I was worried about my sister most because she was only 6 years old. I thought that my family was going to get taken away from me.”
–Royal Wilson

Domonique struggled to describe how much it pained her to watch her child in handcuffs. As her children cried, she said she tried to keep her composure for their sake.

“It took the breath out of me, the life out of me,” she said. “I had to be strong in front of my children. You have to be the leader to be strong to tell your children to just stand and be still while I’m being embarrassed, humiliated.”

While the family was outside, they said officers searched their home and tore apart their ceiling in search of illegal weapons and firearm paraphernalia. Nothing was found.

A confidential informant, listed only as “J. Doe” on the complaint for search warrant, claimed one of her adult sons who was visiting had guns in the home. “J. Doe” also told police he “interacted with” the individual “over the past year at [the Wilsons’] residence.”

But police didn’t find any guns, nor did they make an arrest.

Police also wrote in the warrant, obtained three days prior to the raid, that their background search showed the person was last known to be living at a different address.

The family said police left Royal in handcuffs for 30 minutes.

“And when they let go, I had a bruise on my arm,” he said, pointing to the area where police handcuffed him.

Domonique, her adult sons and their girlfriends, who also say they were handcuffed, were held outside for two hours, they said.

Chicago Police told CBS 2 it “makes every effort to ensure the validity and accuracy of all information used to apply for and execute search warrants.” They also said it is not protocol to handcuff children and that initially police did not know Royal’s age. Once they determined his age, they said they removed the handcuffs. You can read their full statement here.

For nearly a year, CBS 2 Investigators have uncovered an alarming pattern of police traumatizing children during wrong raids by screaming and swearing in their presence, pointing guns at them and handcuffing innocent parents and relatives in front of them.

During CBS 2’s mayoral debate in March, Mayor Lori Lightfoot responded to CBS 2’s investigative findings and called for accountability within the police department.

“Obviously, the fact that police officers are breaking into the wrong homes – and we’ve seen across the country that can lead to deadly consequences – that frankly is totally unacceptable,” Lightfoot said. “And that’s something the superintendent [Eddie Johnson] has to own and take responsibility for.”

Attorney Al Hofeld Jr. plans to file a lawsuit against the city on behalf of the Wilson family. It will be his fifth case involving a raid by Chicago Police where families allege guns were pointed at children, traumatizing them.

“They just have a modus operandi where they come with excessive force from the very beginning. It’s a strategy,” Hofeld Jr. said of the police department. “Hopefully, we’re showing the public need for meaningful reform and re-training and new policy.”

CBS 2’s ongoing investigation into how wrong police raids affect children has led to proposed legislation. House Bill 51, proposed by Senator Jacqueline Collins (D-District 16), passed the Senate with a unanimous vote May 28 and is now headed to the House for a vote. It outlines steps officers would have to take when children are present during police activity to ensure they’re safe from harm, both physically and psychologically.

The proposed bill is called the Peter Mendez Act, named after a 9-year-old CBS 2 interviewed in August of 2018. He said Chicago Police officers pointed guns at him when they raided the wrong home. He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after the incident.

Domonique said her children are also dealing with emotional trauma after what happened to them.

“[Royal] wakes up every night crying, asking, ‘Why?’” Saying he can’t sleep, thinking they’re going to come back here. Saying he had dreams that they shot us.” —Domonique Wilson

Domonique also said no one from the city came back to fix the smashed drywall in her hallway and bedrooms.

“They violated my home,” she said. “They violated my constitutional rights. It’s not fair at all.”

But it’s the treatment of children in these cases, she said, that angers her the most.

“Nobody should get treated the way that me and my family and all these other families got treated,” Domonique said. “These are children that are being traumatized – being woken up out of their sleep to guns pointed at them, thinking that they’re about to get shot down.”

For months, CBS 2’s investigative unit has been asking the department for data on how often and where raids, including those that are executed at the wrong address or involve children, happen. But they have refused to turn over complete records in response to Freedom of Information Act requests. Supt. Johnson has also declined CBS 2’s repeated requests for an interview.

[Andrea]

A Timeline of the Phoenix Police Department's Worst Misconduct Scandals

https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/timeline-of-the-phoenix-polices-worst-misconduct-scandals-11309123

Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams is doing damage control after hundreds of questionable Facebook posts from Phoenix police officers surfaced last week.

The 282 posts from 97 current and former Phoenix cops showed officers frequently referred to black people as "thugs," called for violence against protesters, denounced Muslims as rapists, and joked about refusing to help citizens who criticized the police.

On Wednesday, a Phoenix New Times investigation found four of the officers whose posts were included in the database had also been accused of killing people. While the head of the Phoenix police union dismissed the criticism as a "hunt for negative spin" that failed to mention officers' positive posts, it's far from the only scandal to hit Maricopa County's biggest police department in recent years. Here's a rundown of some of Phoenix PD's worst misconduct:

2007: Phoenix cop Richard Chrisman shot and killed a man and his dog for no reason.

Richard Chrisman, a nine-year veteran of the Phoenix Police Department, shot and killed 28-year-old Danny Rodriguez and Rodriguez's dog for no good reason in 2007.

Responding to a 911 call by Rodriguez's mom, Chrisman went haywire when questioned by the suspect, pulling out his gun, putting it to Rodriguez's head and yelling, "I don't need no warrant, motherfucker." The confrontation ended with Rodriguez and his dog dead on the floor. Chrisman's partner, who was at the scene and watched Chrisman murder Rodriguez, testified at the trial. Chrisman received a seven-year prison sentence.

(Chrisman had previously admitted to planting a crack pipe on a mentally ill homeless woman in 2005.)

March 2010: Homicide detective David Barnes fired after being indicted for perjury.

David Barnes, a onetime homicide detective with the Phoenix Police Department who is now under criminal indictment on perjury charges, was fired this afternoon.

Sergeant Trent Crump, a spokesperson for the city agency, said Barnes learned of his termination from a supervisor during an in-person visit to his home.

"Mr. Barnes is no longer an employee of the Phoenix Police Department," Crump says.

Barnes had been on suspension — with pay — for almost exactly a year. (Yes, taxpayers, the guy collected an estimated $65,000 for sitting on his butt as investigations against him proceeded.)

The ex-cop also faces a misdemeanor charge for allegedly harassing two of his former colleagues, a supervisor, and the supervisor's wife (a homicide detective).

June 2010: Phoenix police officer James Wren charged for shaking down drug dealers.

The Avondale Police Department contacted the Phoenix PD last week to say one of its officers, 23-year-old James Wren, of the Maryvale Precinct, was using traffic stops to steal money from drug dealers.

Avondale police got a tip from an informant who claimed he had conducted two "operations" with Wren where the informant would lead the officer to the cars of drug dealers after a deal had been made.

Wren, according to the informant, would then pull over the car and steal the money.

In one instance, according to court documents acquired by New Times, Wren pulled over a drug dealer, stole his money, and then threw his car keys into the desert before releasing him.

Last night around 10, Wren stopped somebody he thought was a drug dealer who had $40,000 in the car in the 6300 block of West McDowell Road.

The alleged drug dealer was actually an undercover Phoenix police officer.

November 2010: Twenty-five officers investigated for fraud.

Phoenix Police Chief Jack Harris insisted this afternoon that the Phoenix Police Department is not a "corrupt organization," as he explained the department's role in the investigation of three Phoenix police officers — and one former officer — indicted for fraud.

In total, 25 officers within the department were investigated by the Attorney General's Office for what basically boils down to a time-theft scam. The scam cost several businesses that hired off-duty Phoenix police officers to act as security guards about $16,000. Included in those investigated by the AG's Office are the department's killer cop, Richard Chrisman, and Sergeant Sean Drenth, who was mysteriously found shot to death near the State Capitol last month. (Four Phoenix cops were later indicted for theft.)

March 2011: A detective who had worked for the department for 12 years stole thousands of Oxycontin pills.

According to police, the detective would steal Oxycontin that was scheduled to be destroyed. As if nobody would notice, the detective would replace it with the over-the-counter pain reliever Aleve.

Cops became hip to the detective's scam after conducting a routine audit of stored evidence. They suspect that in total, the detective tampered with 83 evidence bags, and stole about 2,400 pills. Authorities say it's unclear how long the detective's been ripping off evidence rooms, but say the investigation is ongoing.

Police say it's unlikely the tampered evidence will impact any criminal cases because the drugs were scheduled to be destroyed.

The detective was arrested yesterday after handing in his letter of resignation to his superiors. He faces charges of evidence tampering, theft, and drug possession.

May 2011: Phoenix police officer Patrick Larrison caught on camera body slamming a 15-year-old girl into a wall.

In January, Larrison responded to a call about a fight between the 15-year-old and her mother in the parking lot of the Ombudsman Charter School near 40th Street and Thomas Road.

The girl was drinking in school and had become belligerent before assaulting a teacher. Her mother called police and showed up at the school where the two got into a physical altercation in the parking lot, and the mother apparently tried to restrain the girl until police arrived.

When police showed up, the girl started to walk — slowly — away from the officers.

Larrison, seemingly unprovoked, charges the girl, slams her into the side of the building, knocking her off her feet.

August 2011: Former Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon's son, Phoenix police officer Jeff Gordon, received a four-day suspension for having oral sex while on duty.

Phoenix Police Officer Jeff Gordon, son of Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, received a four-day suspension after an internal affairs investigation revealed the junior Gordon was giving and getting oral sex and engaging in other sexual acts on several occasions in 2007 and 2010, while on duty.

Gordon admitted to some incidents, but there are other allegations that remain unresolved, according to police reports.

Among them are that on December 1, 2010, he had nonconsensual sexual contact with a city employee. The allegation is that he slipped his hands under the blouse of a Phoenix employee and actually touched her breasts as he was giving her a massage — while he was on duty — and also sent her two pornographic video texts.

Gordon told investigators that he and the female employee were talking about how stressed out she was, and he started giving her a massage. He admitted that his hands moved from her neck and shoulders to her "upper chest" around her "clavicles" because "he believes it feels good when done to him and would serve as a good de-stressor."

2012: Phoenix detective Chris Wilson sentenced to 23 years in prison for sexually assaulting teenage boys.

Former Phoenix police officer Christopher Wilson was sentenced to 23 years in prison and a lifetime of probation Monday after pleading guilty last month just moments before his trial was slated to begin.

Wilson, who had served for the Phoenix Police Department for 13 years and also served in the U.S. Navy, acted as the department's community liaison to the Valley's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. He was arrested in August 2012 and charged with sex crimes involving minors he had met through the department.

Wilson pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual misconduct with a minor and one count of attempting to commit sexual misconduct with a minor. The victims, a 17-year-old boy and a 14-year-old boy, did not attend Wilson's sentencing in Maricopa County Superior Court.

January 2013: Phoenix police arrest about 10 people a day for marijuana possession, a felony in Arizona, and a scandalous waste of police time and manpower.

Phoenix police alone arrest an average of about 10 people a day on suspicion of possession of marijuana.

Phoenix police arrested 2,972 adults and 600 juveniles on suspicion of marijuana possession from July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012. That's nearly 3,600, or about 9.8 a day, each day of the year.

The Phoenix arrest figures show that despite the movement toward freedom for marijuana users seen in states with medical-pot laws, like Arizona, and states in which it's legal for adult use, namely Colorado and Washington, local police are still expending an enormous amount of resources on small pot busts.

August 2013: Phoenix police lieutenant Dalin Webb admits to choking his son.

Dalin Webb, a Phoenix police lieutenant who works with teens, admitted to Mesa police on Sunday that he may have choked his teenage son during a domestic dispute.

Webb, 41, was booked into the Maricopa County Jail on suspicion of aggravated assault-impeded breathing, a felony, and misdemeanor disorderly conduct-fighting.

Making this case even more egregious: Webb is a police supervisor in the Mountain View precinct who once oversaw the Phoenix School Resource Officer Program.

The father-and-son fight at the Webbs' Mesa home on Sunday started off with a lot of yelling, a booking sheet shows. When the 17-year-old boy's mom came into a bedroom to find out what the "commotion" was about, his dad gave her a good shove out the door, causing her leg to buckle, the boy told police.

The teen "cursed" at his father for pushing his mom. Webb threw him on a bed and pinned him down. Webb choked him by placing two hands around his neck, limiting his breathing, the teen reported.

2014: Phoenix cop Jeremy Sweet arrested for pulling a gun on people during a road-rage incident.

Jeremy Sweet, 51, has worked for the department's Central Booking Unit for about seven years. On Monday at about noon, he was transporting several prisoners in an unmarked vehicle when he became involved in a "traffic altercation" at about Central Avenue and Lincoln Street, police say.

During the altercation, Sweet is alleged to have pulled out his handgun and pointed it an the occupants of another vehicle. Some of the prisoners in Sweet's vehicle were said to have witnessed the incident. A citizen who also saw what happened called 911 to make a report.

An investigation led to today's arrest, according to Sergeant Trent Crump, Phoenix police spokesman. Crump later told a reporter that Sweet had "lectured" the other driver while pointing his gun.

Police are seeking one count of felony aggravated assault in the case.

June 2015: Phoenix cop Timothy Morris arrested on kidnapping and sexual assault charges.

Jane was still in the backseat crying when Morris leaned down to remove the handcuffs. He re-cuffed her wrists in front of her body and made her get out of the car to perform oral sex.

Afterward, she spit Morris' semen on the ground and wiped her mouth with her shirt. He told her to get back in the car because he was taking her home.

En route, he "told her to say the computer was down if anyone asks her why she was not taken to jail," according to the police report.?

He parked in front of her house a little after 4 a.m. and uncuffed her.

"Maybe I'll see you around," she remembers him saying as he watched her walk to her front door.

July 2015: Ex-Phoenix cop Justin LaClere pleads guilty to sexually exploiting a minor.

Disgraced former Phoenix police officer Justin LaClere changed his plea this week and admitted he was guilty of both luring a minor for sexual exploitation and then having sexual intercourse with her.

Scottsdale Police arrested 32-year-old LaClere, a seven-year veteran of the force, in January 2014 after receiving information that he had sex with a 17-year-old girl at her house while her parents were out running errands.

According to court documents obtained by New Times, the two met on the social media site Whisper, which allows users to upload pictures anonymously and then privately message one another. On January 13, 2014, the high school girl “uploaded a picture of a baby with the text ‘I want to get pregnant but I’m only a teen’ written across it.”

September 13, 2016: Phoenix cops forced a 19-year-old to eat weed, leading to a $100,000 lawsuit.

In the early hours of the morning on September 13, 2016, Castro was driving his BMW through Maryvale when he was pulled over by Phoenix police officers. They found a gun and roughly a gram of marijuana inside his car.

According to the complaint filed in Maricopa County Court, Officer Jason McFadden asked Castro, "Do you want to go home tonight?"

At that point, the lawsuit says, McFadden told him to eat the marijuana or else he would be going to jail.

Castro, who was 19 at the time, also claims in the lawsuit that he tried to record the incident, but McFadden told him that he would get shot if he reached for his phone.

June 2017: Phoenix settles lawsuit with family of unarmed black man killed by Phoenix police for $1.5 million.

Rumain Brisbon had just pulled into the parking lot of his North Phoenix apartment complex on a December day in 2014 and gotten out of the car when a police officer confronted him.

What happened next is disputed. The Phoenix officer, Mark Rine, has claimed that Brisbon reached for his waistband after being told to put his hands up, then started to run away. A struggle ensued, and Rine, who said that he thought that he felt a gun in Brisbon's pocket, fired two shots in self-defense.

Two witnesses — Brisbon's friend Brandon Dickerson, who'd been sitting in his car, and Dana Klinger, his girlfriend — tell a different story, which was reflected in a lawsuit filed in May 2015. It argued that Rine had no probable cause to detain or arrest Brisbon, who had gone out to pick up food at McDonald's for his girlfriend and their 18-month-old daughter.

Wednesday, the Phoenix City Council approved a $1.5 million payment to Brisbon's family, settling claims filed on behalf of his mother, girlfriend, and children.

2018: Phoenix police shot a record number of people last year — more people than the NYPD or the LAPD, the two biggest police forces in the country. The high number itself may not constitute misconduct, but reasons for the deadly trend remain unknown in spite of a later study.

The Phoenix Police Department on Friday released an independent report on last year's extraordinary number of officer-involved shootings, which more than doubled the 2017 number and ranked among the highest in the country.

Those who want a clear answer on why the police shot so many more people will be disappointed.

The report did not point to any definitive cause for the 44 police shootings in 2018 — 23 of which were fatal — but identifies a significant increase in shootings involving armed individuals and people assaulting cops with deadly weapons.

[Andrea]

A Distraught Woman May Have Saved A Black Man From Being Shot By Police

https://blavity.com/a-distraught-woman-may-have-saved-a-black-man-from-being-shot-by-police

A distraught Black woman may have saved a young man's life on Friday when she began filming video of his arrest at a gas station in Hawthorne, California.

The woman, who called herself 'Skye,' was in tears as she begged police not to shoot 24-year-old William Ewell. More than 10 officers were at the scene and all of them were pointing their guns at Ewell as he knelt.

The harrowing five-minute video footage was shared on Instagram Live, who spoke to Ewell as he knelt and implored officers to just arrest him instead of shooting him.

"Can somebody put your guns down and please come get him?" she asked.

"Why are your guns pulled on this young man? He has no weapons on him."

While telling Ewell to stay calm and stay still, she told police that her boyfriend, Leroy Browning, was shot to death by police in 2015.

Browning's case was highly publicized because he was shot after he was already in police custody. As Skye describes her own experience with police shootings, she begins to audibly cry and beg the officers not to kill Ewell.

At one point in the video, you can see two officers pointing their guns at Skye while other officers tried to explain why they were arresting Ewell.

Eventually, police approached him and handcuffed him before speaking to Skye about what was happening. In the video, you can hear an officer saying Ewell matched the description of a suspect police were looking for.

In a statement, police say Ewell was allegedly involved in a robbery-assault at the gas station. However, they did not explain why so many officers were needed for the arrest. Furthermore, they did not provide an explanation as to why officers were threatening to use such force against both the suspect and bystander.

They defended their actions by claiming that Ewell was possibly armed, which he was not.

On Twitter, Skye's video sparked outrage. Many questioned why police officers needed to point their guns at Ewell when he was already kneeling and ready to be arrested.

They had the entire police force draw guns on this one black man for "fitting the description" of an "armed robber"

Imagine the everlasting trauma this would have on an innocent person because they "fit the description"

"Can Yall just put your guns away and somebody get him. Don't move. Don't move." 💔

"We're not saying he's a suspect, but we have to figure out what's going on, all right? So try and relax."

That wasn't a figure-out-what's-going-on squad. That was a death squad.

"Can Yall just put your guns away and somebody get him. Don't move. Don't move." 💔

"This happened in the city of Hawthorne, which was a sundown town until the middle of the twentieth century," said Rebecca J. Kavanagh, a public defender in New York City and well known activist.

"Thinking about all of this, it hits me that what while what Skye did is remarkable, and it's incredible that she happened to be there at that exact same time, it's not incredible at all that she lived through a horribly similar experience with her boyfriend."

The video has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times on Twitter and Instagram. Many users praised Skye for stepping up to help someone she does not know personally. In the video, an officer asks her why she was speaking up.

Through her tears she said, “I don’t even know him, but I care that much.”

[Andrea]

Parents say police pulled guns on them after 4-year-old daughter took a doll from a store in Phoenix

https://www.kcra.com/article/10m-claim-says-phoenix-police-violated-family-s-rights/28041287?fbclid=IwAR3Qrrh4GMjhyZ5mnk656nC3k692seMH X6cvwUP1NrhbIFw2-ZJ-15_Y-MU

PHOENIX —
A Phoenix couple is seeking $10 million from the city after a video showed police officers drawing a gun on them after their 4-year-old daughter allegedly stole a doll from a Family Dollar store.

Dravon Ames and fiancee Iesha Harper said they didn't notice when their daughter walked out with a Barbie from the store last month. They've filed a notice of claim against the city for $10 million, which serves as a precursor to a lawsuit.

Soon after they left the store, Ames said the couple pulled into an apartment complex to drop their daughter off at a babysitter. Then an officer began banging against their window, yelling and threatening to kill them.

"Our hands are up, we're just trying not to get shot, trying to stay calm," Ames said. "He had a gun drawn."

Officer did not identify himself, family says

Ames said there were no sirens or lights to indicate that they were being pulled over beforehand and the officer who was pointing a gun at them did not immediately identify himself as an officer.

The incident took place on May 29, the family said. Police said they were made aware of video on June 11.

In the 12-minute blurred-out video posted on the department's Facebook page, one officer can be seen handcuffing Ames, first on the ground and then against a police car. The officer kicks Ames and can be heard yelling multiple times, "When I tell you to do something, you [expletive] do it."

Another officer appears to be pulling a gun on the passenger side of the couple's vehicle before Harper exits the car, holding a small child, with a second child by her side.

An officer is seen attempting to yank the child from her arms before a bystander offers to take her children.

Harper, who was five months pregnant at the time, said she was terrified.

"I I really thought he was gonna shoot me in front of the kids," she told CNN by phone Friday. She chose to give her two children to a "complete stranger because I didn't trust the police to have her."

During the video, officers can be heard telling her to get her hands up.

The city has 60 days to respond to the notice of claim and the next step is filing a lawsuit, said Thomas Horne, the family's attorney. In his notice, he says the officers committed battery and unlawful imprisonment, among others, and both the police department and city are liable because of "inadequate policies, training, supervision."

The department is investigating

Authorities said the incident is under investigation.

"The Phoenix Police Department takes all allegations of misconduct seriously and for this reason, this incident is currently being investigated by the Professional Standards Bureau," the department said.

It is not clear who recorded the video or what transpired beforehand. There is no body cam footage of the incident, Phoenix Police Department Sgt. Tommy Thompson told CNN.

Thompson said they cannot provide additional information due to pending litigation.

He told KNXV that the officer who is seen sweeping Ames' leg is now on a nonenforcement assignment. The police department has not named any of the officers involved.

Thompson also told the affiliate there was more to it than the claim of the stolen doll, but would not expound on it. The affiliate reported that police said there were other stolen items in the vehicle besides the doll.

While the family's claim said the incident happened "on or about May 29," the police statement said it was May 27.

Police chief 'disturbed' by officer's action

In a video posted to the department's Facebook page Friday, Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams said she was "disturbed by the language and the actions of our officer."

"I assure you that this incident is not representative of the majority of Phoenix police officers who serve this city," Williams said.

The chief said she began an "immediate internal investigation" as soon as she became aware of the video.

"I wish investigations could be handled instantly, but each one takes time and deserves the due diligence before we can discuss specific details," she said.

Harper and Ames say both their daughters are traumatized, and their 4-year-old has been having nightmares and wetting the bed since the incident.

Their second daughter, just a year old, suffered "dead arm," after the officer tried to yank her from her mother.

The couple is still shaken up too. Ames said he was worried about his children and felt helpless during the incident.

"I'm supposed to protect my family, I'm cuffed up ... I'm hearing my daughter screaming, my fiance being handled. It broke me down so much," he said.

Reverend Jarrett Maupin, a spokesman for the family, told CNN Ames is lucky to be alive.

"He was totally compliant, submissive even still not enough to save him from the ferocious violence of the police department," Maupin said.

The couple says they were both released shortly after the arrest and were not charged.