Delaware police tell mother 'misunderstanding' led to son's detainment in hot squad car
Editor's note: This story has been updated with an explanation from Delaware State Police as to why multiple officers, including K-9 units and a police helicopter, were sent out on Monday night to the Elsmere area.
An Elsmere-area teen has not left his house in the days since he says police pulled him out of his Lancaster Village home at gunpoint, slammed him to the ground and then detained him in a hot squad car for a period of time only to be released with an explanation that this had been a misunderstanding.
"It really is traumatizing," said the 17-year-old teen, whom Delaware Online/The News Journal is not identifying because he is a minor and requested to remain anonymous. "I never experienced, in my life, being slammed like that by police."
No charges were filed against the teen, but Monday night's incident in Lancaster Village appears to be related to an assault of a 15-year-old boy, who the younger boy's family said was beaten in a nearby development by a Delaware State Police trooper.
In a social media post, a woman said her 15-year-old nephew and his friends were pranking residents in the Elsmere area with "ding-dong ditch" before the reported assault occurred. This is a prank in which someone knocks on a door or rings someone's doorbell, then runs away before they answer.
According to the woman, the boys unknowingly targeted a home owned by a state trooper. He "was not home at the time, but he was made aware by other family members in the home," she wrote.
Ring video footage, the post said, showed the boys knocking on the door and running off.
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The woman said as the boys walked home, two troopers stopped them. The teens were not carrying weapons, she said, emphasizing in the post the word "unarmed."
"The two state troopers arrested my nephews (sic) friends, then beat the living hell out of nephew," she said in the post. "My nephew currently has a concussion, needs surgery to repair severe eye damage (as the cops stomped on him and kicked him multiple times)."
The trooper has been suspended and Delaware State Police has said they are investigating the incident involving the 15-year-old boy. On Friday, a police spokesperson said the incident that sent out numerous officers, including K-9 units and the state police helicopter, was a response to a report of an attempted home invasion.
State police, however, have not explained if the case involving the 15-year-old boy was related to the incident involving the older teen.
"As you are aware, this is an ongoing investigation," Sgt. India Sturgis, a state police spokesperson, said when asked about the older teen's incident. She added: "Just to be clear, I don't have those specifics to share with you right now."
While state police won't comment, Lancaster Village residents, as well as the 17-year-old and his mother, suspect this incident had something to do with the event involving the younger teen. Some of the reasons they give for their reasoning include:
State police searching in what is normally New Castle County police's jurisdiction.
Police told neighbors they were searching for people involved in a home invasion.
One of the troopers involved in the search was heard saying this involved his house.
New Castle County police did not respond to an email asking if they were involved in the Monday search or if they were aware this search was going on in their jurisdiction.
The teen and his mother, Chavuan Harris, said they recognized one officer as being a state police trooper only because he was wearing a blue uniform. The others were dressed in black.
Harris added that the state trooper was telling her neighbors they were investigating a home invasion at his house. Harris provided a neighbor's video of the trooper asking them to check their Ring video. He's not heard saying it was his house.
Sturgis, the state police spokesperson, did not immediately respond to questions about this being the specific trooper under investigation.
The 17-year-old teen, who has bruises on his back from where he said an officer put his knee on him, said he's lost the desire to go outside — even walking to the store is something he doesn't want to do.
"I really don't feel comfortable walking around outside," he said, adding that talking about the incident gets his heart pumping.
"It's just like bringing everything back," he said. "I'm trying to really forget about it."
'Think it's funny to mess with a cop's house'
The incident in Lancaster Village began a little before 9 p.m. as the 17-year-old and a friend were playing video games on the second floor of this Taft Avenue home. The teen was also having a video phone call with his mother.
It's about this time the teen heard a bang at the front door. He looked out his second-story window and could see police.
With his mother on the phone, the teen and his friend walked downstairs and opened the door.
"They had assault rifles pointing at me," he said.
As he began opening the screen door, he said an officer grabbed him and slammed him to the ground, placing a knee on the lanky teen's back.
"You think it's funny to mess with a cop's house," the teen remembers hearing one of the officers tell him. Because he was facedown on the ground, the teen said did not see which officer said this.
The officer then dragged him over the lawn before handcuffing him. His friend was also detained, though the teen said the friend was not roughed up like he was.
The two were placed in the back of separate police cars. The teen said the car he was in had the heat turned on high.
"I asked him if he could turn the air on," said the teen, who'd been wearing sweats at the time of the arrest. "He just laughed."
Despite asking why he was being detained, police would not tell him.
The teen, who said he gets claustrophobic, said he was sweating and breathing really heavy.
"It was just a really bad experience," he added.
'Misunderstanding'
Harris lost phone communication with her son shortly after police grabbed him and she heard him scream.
Harris said she began calling neighbors, one of whom explained what was going on outside her house. Another neighbor made her way down to the scene.
"Are you the parent or guardian of this kid?" the neighbor said they were asked by one of the officers, who then shined a flashlight on her face. "Tell me your son's name or I'm going to arrest you."
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Harris, who raced from Philadelphia to her home, said officers would not tell her what was going on other than she had to wait for the police sergeant.
When the sergeant arrived, he explained that a police K-9 unit tracked her son from where another incident had occurred earlier that night. Harris' son had been in the adjacent development, Dogwood Hollow, the previous week. But this didn't sound right to her, especially since she said her son was driven back to her home in a police car.
After hours of waiting, Harris said a detective told her there had been a "misunderstanding."
"Some kids were over in the other neighborhood playing [ding-dong ditch] and they hit a door that belonged to a state trooper police officer," she said the officer told her. "Your son is not on the video. He has nothing to do with it."
Her son was released after being detained for about four hours.
No incident report was provided to Harris, who insists officers knew early on her son was not involved in the Dogwood Hollow incident because she saw officers reviewing a video of the teens they were looking for.
Harris said she's baffled as to why officers decided to target her son, who had nothing to do with the other incident. She said the teens involved in the other incident are white, while her son is Black. Her son doesn't even know the younger teens.
"He was detained, dragged out of my house, slammed down on my lawn, drugged through my grass, into a cop car for nothing at all," she said. "He had nothing to do with it. That officer had no reason to come to my house at all.
"I think he just jumped the gun."
Contact Esteban Parra at (302) 324-2299 or eparra@delawareonline.com.
This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Delaware State Police face more complaints amid assault investigation
