The mother of a teenage boy who alleges police on Tuesday searched his home, punched and hit him with a lock cutter while he was handcuffed, is crying foul.
Sophia Williams is furious and is questioning how armed police officers, who, according to her 17-year-old son, never produced a search warrant, never identified themselves, only wore dark blue jackets bearing the letters ‘DEU’ and never asked for the homeowner, could get away with such behavior.
The mother of three said, she reported the matter to the Police Complaints and Corruptions Unit that night and she now wants the officer reprimanded.
Police did confirm that a report was filed by the duo.
The youngster told The Freeport News he was home alone shortly after 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 10, 2012 when he heard someone’s voice at the back gate and looked out the window.
On seeing a number of people running into the yard he ran to the front door and noticed the officers at the front.
“Then they say, ‘open the f— door.’ So I opened the door for them and they come inside and ask me where the stuff is,” he recalled.
He said there were about six or seven officers. Three stayed with him inside the home and the others went to the back of the house.
The high schooler said, he told them he didn’t have anything and when they asked how many people were home, he informed them that he was alone.
He said the officers held him down and searched him.
After repeatedly denying that he had anything, the teen said he was handcuffed and taken throughout the house while the officers conducted a search.
He said one officer in particular, whom he describes as “the big police,” kept asking for “the stuff.”
“I said I don’t know and then he keep (punching) me up in my belly,” the youngster said.
The young man alleges that one of the three officers who stayed inside the house with him was tall and held him at the back while he was handcuffed and the “big police” had a red-handle lock cutter.
“He hit me in my belly with it when I was walking out my room,” he recalled.
He said, he was afraid.
“I was thinking I hope they don’t kill me in here,” he said.
The youngster said when they all walked back into the kitchen the “big officer” slapped him for nothing.
He said at one point he told them that he was only 17 years old, but they told him that it did not matter to them.
When they went to the back of the yard, the teen said he watched as the officers who were already outside were on the roof trying to break into the back section of the complex.
He said when one of the officers, whom he was familiar with, asked what they were doing with him but none of the officers answered.
Eventually, he said, he was released and the officers told him that he was lucky they didn’t carry him that time.
The teen said, he was cleaning up the mess as the officers were at the back of the yard when he heard his mother’s car.
The irate mother said she learned about the incident that afternoon when her son came out to her as she pulled up to her Bruce Avenue home.
“He came to the gate and he said the DEU just let him loose. I said the DEU just let you loose from where and he said they are all over the yard,” she said, adding that it was just after 5:00 p.m.
Williams explained that she has tenants in two rooms at the rear of the duplex and, she admits, officers from the Drug Enforcement Unit have been to the complex before, but never to her home.
She said she observed a number of officers at the back of the complex and questioned her son about what had happened.
On learning that he was handcuffed, slapped and punched, she said she went outside to question the officers and after none of them wanted to answer her, she dialed 911.
The upset mother said the officer on the other end, after calming her down, instructed her on what to do.
Williams said she and her son then went down to the Police Headquarters and both filed a report with the Complains and Corruptions Unit.
She said her son was in pain and she was given a form to have her son seen by a doctor.
Williams said the following morning she was informed by the nurse that her son’s abdominal tissue was swollen.
The concerned mother said she returned to the police station with the form from the hospital and was told that they would get back to her in two weeks.
But, Williams said, she is unable to wait that long.
“I want me and this officer to come together for him to tell me what was the reason for him putting his hand on my 17-year-old child and do what he did without asking for his parents,” she said.
“They ripped my house apart and didn’t find anything, neither did they find anything from the person who rents from me.”
She said the officer’s name is being withheld from her, but her son is convinced that if he sees him again he can identify him.
“I want him to know, not this boy,” she said of the officer, who allegedly abused her son. “He’s going to need to tell me why he put is hands on him. He wasn’t resisting and he was handcuffed too.”
Williams said she wants to make it clear that no member of the Royal Bahamas Police Force has the right to abuse their power and take advantage of anyone, especially her 17-year-old child.
According to Police Affairs and Communications Officer Assistant Superintendent Loretta Mackey, the matter is under investigation.
By LEDEDRA MARCHE
The Freeport News
