A black boy with autism in Virginia was handcuffed to the ground during an after-school tennis program run by the local police department.
Shelia Jackson told 6 Richmond news that she enrolled her son, who has not been publicly named, to an athletics program run by officers from the Richmond Police Department in an effort to help her son feel more comfortable. when with the police.
Mom Goes To The Police Run Tennis Looking For A Black Autistic Son Handcuffed On The Ground
Instead, she said she arrived and found her son surrounded by officers as he was handcuffed and lying on the ground.
Shelia Jackson told 6 News Richmond: “I wanted him to have a positive view of police officers, not all the negative things he sees on TV.
Jackson went on to say that she signed him up for the after-school tennis program at Virginia Commonwealth University, where officers from the Richmond Police Department volunteer through the Police Sports League. Richmond, according to the store.
But on November 3, Jackson went to pick up her son and discovered the shocking scene as it unfolded.
Police in Virginia handcuffed a 12-year-old boy with autism and beat him during an after-school tennis program. Sheila Jackson says her son knows how to get out of situations and adjust himself, but when a police officer yelled at him and he walked away, they arrested him. pic.twitter.com/DXVNsF7Wla
— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) December 31, 2022
“We ended up going to the VCU emergency room. They diagnosed him with a TBI concussion,” Jackson said.
Staff tried to explain the problem, but left more questions than answers
Jackson added that staff at the tennis program were frustrated with his serves, prompting them to ask him to practice off the court. What happens next remains unclear, she said.
She said her son told her that one of the police officers started yelling at him, and he walked away in response to her.
“He knows how to try to self-regulate and stay out of a situation, she might think he’s being defiant,” says Jackson.
It is unclear if the officers involved in the incident knew about the boy’s autism, but what is clear is that the situation escalated to the point where her son was handcuffed.
Jackson said: “When I got here, my son was handcuffed on the ground right after the fence was opened. “Some people hold their heads, some people kneel on the left side, some people hold their right legs, some people on the right kneel with their shoulders down and then someone else gets up.”
The police department said officers hit the boy in the head when they restrained him, but could not say why he was restrained.
Jackson said the police department told her her son head-butted an officer when they tried to restrain him, but did not explain why he was retrained in the first place.
“That’s not how he should be treated, not just my son, but anyone,” she said. “Where is the training? You just go to training and you don’t participate?
In the end, her son suffered a concussion, and she still doesn’t know what led to the incident and exactly how he was injured.
The mother told the outlet that she had tried to seek answers several times from the Richmond Police Department, but had yet to receive an answer to her question.
She even paid $5 for a copy of the police report, however it did not have a description of the incident, according to 6 News Richmond.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Richmond Police Department said it was currently conducting an internal investigation and added that they could not provide any further details at this time.
OH. Why did Richmond (VA) officers handcuff a 12-year-old black child with autism during an after-school athletic program? His mother signed up for him in hopes of fostering a positive relationship with the police, who are volunteering. Unfortunately, an incident left him with a TBI concussion!
– Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) January 4, 2023
While the boy continues to deal with the injury, the department that investigates the ongoing incident said
That investigation is ongoing.
Jackson said her son has since faced trauma following the incident, from getting the best grades in his middle school class to struggling just to get through the school day, the newspaper reported.
“As soon as it’s shaken it’s like bam bam bam. I was like ‘oh my god, it’s something that happens every day,'” Jackson said.
Jackson’s son was not arrested, but questions about his treatment remain unanswered.
VCU police said they responded to a disruptive call involving a minor and Richmond Police. However, when they arrived, neither the minors nor their parents were present at the scene.
