Bodycam footage shows the moment Vermont police officers restrained a 14-year-old boy on the ground after his mother called police for stealing electronic cigarettes.
Cathy Austrian wanted to teach her child a lesson after he stole from a local gas station and called Burlington police in May 2021.
But video of the incident shows five officers handcuffing her son and pinning him to the ground as he screams and struggles.
The teen, who is black and has behavioral and intellectual disabilities, was eventually injected with a ketamine, a sedative, and then taken to a hospital.
Now Austrian is suing the police, saying officers used excessive force and discriminated against her unarmed son.
Bodycam footage shows the moment Vermont police officers restrained a 14-year-old boy on the ground after his mother called the police for stealing electronic cigarettes
Cathy Austrian wanted to teach her child a lesson after he stole from a local gas station and called Burlington police in May 2021
But video of the incident shows five officers handcuffing her son and pinning him to the ground as he screams and struggles.
The teenager initially refused to hand over the last stolen e-cigarette before two officers physically forced him to do so.
The Austrian’s son then screamed and tried to break free as he was handcuffed and pinned down, according to a civil lawsuit filed Tuesday in Chittenden County Superior Civil Court.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont shared footage from police body camera video.
It shows two officers calmly talking to the teenager, who is sitting on a bed. His mother tells him to cooperate; she searches the drawers and finds most of the remaining e-cigarettes and tries to get the last one from him.
Officers say if he hands in the e-cigarettes, they’ll go away and you won’t be charged. He is not responding.
After about 10 minutes, the officers move in and forcibly remove the last of the e-cigarettes from his hand by pulling his arms behind his back and pinning the 230-pound teen against the bed.
“The police chose to respond to my son with unprovoked force and use of force when they could and should have followed their own procedures and used safe, supportive methods,” Austrian said in a statement released by the ACLU of Vermont, who has the hair case.
Burlington police officers had previously visited the home and were aware of the teen’s disability, the lawsuit said.
Austrian cared for the child, who like his birth mother had developmental and intellectual disabilities, since he was five months old and adopted him at age two.
The Austrian’s son then screamed and tried to break free as he was handcuffed and pinned down, according to a civil lawsuit filed Tuesday in Chittenden County Superior Civil Court.
Now Austrian is suing police over claims they used excessive force and discriminated against her unarmed son
When the two officers arrived to talk to the teen, Austrian told them her son was acting erratically and had been having a rough week.
She said he had an MRI of his heart that week and his ADHD medication had been increased the week before.
She said he left the house with a hammer and scissors and returned with a bag full of e-cigarettes that he admitted he stole from a Cumberland Farms supermarket. He gave her half of it but wouldn’t give up the others, she said.
After officers received the last stolen item, they said in their police reports, the teen tried to kick and punch them.
According to the lawsuit, the teen “reflexively stood up from the bed and waved his arms haphazardly at the officers.”
That response “is typical of individuals with his disability and trauma history who are placed in unnecessary physical restraints and denied space,” the lawsuit said.
The officers handcuffed him and eventually pushed him to the ground on his stomach. The teenager hit, shouted and cursed.
Officers told him to stop spitting, and paramedics, who called police, placed a spit hood over his head.
They then injected the teen with ketamine. They said the teen’s suffering was “excited delirium,” a term the medical community has rejected, the ACLU said.
He was carried out of the house unconscious on a stretcher and spent the night in the hospital, the lawsuit said.
By calling the police, his mother sought help to get him to do the right thing, said Pointer, the attorney.
“Instead of getting that kind of help, her child was abused,” Pointer said. “Her child was handcuffed, manhandled, a spit bag was placed over his head and a very powerful and lethal sedative was administered, and now she has to pick up the pieces.”
Adante Pointer, a civil rights attorney in the San Francisco Bay area, said officers initially did the right thing: discussing the consequences and trying to build rapport.
“The turning point in this series of events is when officers decided to go hands-on,” he said.
The teen, who is black and has behavioral and intellectual disabilities, was eventually injected with a ketamine, a sedative, and then taken to a hospital.
Adante Pointer, a civil rights attorney in the San Francisco Bay area, said officers initially did the right thing: discussing the consequences and trying to build rapport.
“There was no urgency here, there was no emergency where they had to force a physical confrontation,” said Pointer, noting that the teen was in a room with his mother and was not a violent criminal trying to flee.
The lawsuit seeks punitive damages against the city and monetary damages and relief for the teen.
It also wants the city to accommodate people with disabilities in police interactions, including implementing officer training and adjusting policies on ketamine use.
A city spokeswoman said Burlington investigated and found that fire department officers and EMTs acted in accordance with city policy and state law.
“We expect to defend ourselves vigorously and successfully against the allegations,” Samantha Sheehan said in a statement Wednesday.
After the investigation, Mayor Miro Weinberger ordered the Burlington Fire Department to review its use of ketamine, Sheehan said via email.
The state updated protocols to require physician approval for all sedation of patients with combative behavior, which was not necessary at the time, although responding paramedics did obtain physician approval, she wrote.
A guideline on dealing with people with reduced capabilities is under review and is expected to be rewritten by the police commission, Sheehan said.
The ordeal underscores the need for adequate police training in dealing with people with disabilities and mental health issues, and raises questions about whether police are best suited to respond to such situations, advocates say.
A growing number of American communities are responding to nonviolent mental health crises with doctors and EMTs or paramedics, rather than police.
DailyMail.com has contacted Burlington police for comment.
