Cop seen punching teen with autism in California video. ‘Disturbing,’ boy’s dad says
Surveillance video shared by a California dad shows a police officer violently attack a teenager in a residential neighborhood on Wednesday.
Adam Wolf says he is worried his 17-year-old son, Preston, who has autism and ADHD, will never trust police officers again.
“I am pro police, but I am not pro ABUSE,” Wolf said on Facebook, where he posted the video. “This individual and department must be held accountable for their actions. NO child, disability or not, deserves to be treated like this.”
Police in Vacaville, about 35 miles southwest of Sacramento, said Preston Wolf was involved in a fight with a 16-year-old boy that reportedly involved a knife or pipe, according to KNTV.
The 16-year-old suffered minor injuries, according to the Vacaville Reporter.
When officers found Preston Wolf, they were unaware he had special needs, KNTV reported.
In camera footage from a Ring doorbell, he is seen on a sidewalk with a scooter when an officer pulled up near him. The officer told him to get down, and the boy complied.
The officer tossed the scooter, and when the stood up, he threw him back to the ground.
Adam Wolf said his son’s actions were caused by fear.
“He was trying to back away because he probably wanted to come home to us,” Wolf said, CBS13 reported.
In the video, the officer got on top of the teenager and told him to put his hands behind his back. Then the officers appears to have punched him in the face.
“You’re gonna get hurt. Don’t make me hurt you more,” the officer said before two other arrived.
Preston Wolf was cited for suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and resisting arrest, according to the Vacaville Reporter. He was detained for about an hour.
His father told KNTV the behavior the officer exhibited in the video “was disturbing and sickening and it shouldn’t have happened.”
“He said he always thought they were there to help and he doesn’t feel like that anymore,” Wolf said, according to CBS13.
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