EAST ORANGE, New Jersey (WABC) — There is an investigation into a police stop in New Jersey involving a 13-year-old boy in New Jersey.
Video shows the moments officers took the boy down and detained him during the course of a firearm investigation inside an Jenny Deli and Grocery in East Orange on Friday around 4 p.m.
The boy’s mother claims he was wrongfully targeted and physically hurt. There are also questions about the use of force and whether the stop went too far.
Eyewitness News spoke with 13-year-old Alkyair Williams and his family. His mother, Amirah is extremely upset. Amira says police told her they were looking for a man in his twenties, so she is wondering how the mix-up happened.
Alkyair was seen standing inside the deli on surveillance video as he was buying a shirt. As he was walking out, one officer was seen grabbing him. The officer then put the teen on top of boxes.
More officers came in, and at one point there were right inside the store.
Alkyair eventually got up, and he was handcuffed. The 13-year-old says officers did not say anything to him when they walked in and handcuffed him.
His mother was outside and she tells Eyewitness News that officers would not let her in at first, and when they finally did, she was furious.
While the incident happened in East Orange, some of the officers in the surveillance video were wearing Newark police vests. Eyewitness News reached out to Newark Police and they say they were working on a joint firearm investigation with Federal law enforcement. They say Alkyair’s family reached out to East Orange Police about what happened and it was then reported to them.
An internal investigation by the Newark Police Division’s Officer of Professional Standards has been initiated.
Amirah explained what officers told her when she was trying to figure out why her son was arrested.
“I’m trying to see why y’all got my son right here? He said, mistaken identity. I said mistaken identity for who? For who? He said, a 22-year-old with dreads and visible tattoos. I said look at my son, do he look like he 22? Do he have visible tattoos? He don’t even have dreads,” she says.
She says she wants officers to take accountability.
“I just want them to take accountability. I want apologies. They wouldn’t even give me their name, not their badges. They got in their cars and drove off like nothing ever happened,” she added.
Alkyair says he is traumatized.
“I got PTSD from it. I don’t want to go outside no more. Me, me, I’m a normal kid that just go outside, that want to hang with their friends. No. That ain’t me no more. I don’t want to go to school no more,” he said.
Eyewitness News reached out to East Orange Office of Public Information but have not yet heard back.
Amirah says she just wants justice for her son who can’t sleep and does not want to go outside after what happened.
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