Video of Disabled Aboriginal Violently Arrested in Taree NSW Leads to Police Investigation
The violent arrest of an 18-year-old disabled Aboriginal boy who saw him thrown to the ground having a fit sparked an internal police investigation.
New South Wales Police responded to reports that a man attempted to break into two homes in Wyoming Close, Taree, just after 4pm on Tuesday.
The alleged attacker fled the scene on foot before being located shortly afterwards at a property on Gwenneth Avenue, where footage shows the young man stumbling down a driveway before falling to the ground and beginning to have a seizure.
In a video shared on social media, the officer is seen pulling him up and pushing him along the way before the teenager collapses again and is then handcuffed.
A second video shows the same officer escorting the young man several paces down the road before brutally knocking his legs out from under him in a violent leg-sweeping maneuver.
“There were other ways they could have taken care of him,” the teenager’s aunt said.
“He didn’t resist arrest or anything.”
“They almost broke this little boy’s arm. This little guy was having a seizure and they didn’t even have the courtesy to call an ambulance,’ she said The Guardian.
His aunt claimed he hit himself and severed his head during the arrest.
The 18-year-old suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and has been on disability pension since he was 16, she added .
An internal investigation is underway by NSW Police into the violent arrest of an 18-year-old disabled Aboriginal man who was knocked down during a leg-sweeping maneuver (pictured)
Police responded to reports of a man attempting to break into two properties in Wyoming Close, Taree, just after 4pm before the young man was located shortly afterwards on Gwenneth Avenue (pictured)
He was charged with being in possession of alleged stolen property and was denied bail after appearing in Taree Local Court on Wednesday.
“I thought I was dying in the cell last night,” the teenager told his jail aunt on Thursday.
“I couldn’t move.”
A NSW Police spokesman said an internal investigation into the arrest was ongoing.
“The investigation, led by the Manning-Great Lakes Police District, will look into a police officer’s response and arrest,” the statement said.
No comment was made on whether the teenager was offered medical assistance.
The young man must reappear in court on September 18.
