The father of a 12-year-old Michigan boy who was wrongfully handcuffed outside his home while taking out the trash said his son is traumatized by the experience and he can't accept the police department's apology.
Tashawn Bernard, who is Black, was briefly detained last week by a white police officer in what the Lansing Police Department called an “unfortunate case of wrong place, wrong time.”
Lansing Police Department Chief Ellery Sosebee also apologized to the family in a statement released on Friday.
"As the Chief of Police, I want to apologize that this incident had such an effect on this young man and his family," Sosebee said. "I'm asking for the community to consider all the facts of the situation before making a judgment."
Tashawn's father, Michael Bernard, said in an interview with CNN that he "will never accept an apology."
"My son did not deserve to be treated the way they treated him," Michael Bernard added. "No way, no shape or form. Justice for my son. That’s all I want. Nothing else.”
Tashawn was taking trash out to the dumpster when he was approached by an officer that had his “gun unholstered and was holding it in front of him,” according to a lawyer representing the family.
U.S. & World
Cellphone video circulating on social media shows the officer leading the boy — whose hands are cuffed behind his back — through the parking lot of an apartment complex on Thursday. The officer had been searching for a suspect in a string of car thefts when he spotted the child.
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About three minutes into the video of the incident, an officer removed the handcuffs and spoke with Tashawn for about 30 seconds. Tashawn was then allowed to join his father on the sidewalk.
Michael Bernard said he could sense something was wrong when his son was taking longer than usual to bring out the trash. When he went outside, he said, his son “had cuffs on and police were standing around him.”
“I was mad about it because I was like my son would never break any law,” Michael Bernard told NBC affiliate WWBT. “So I rushed out and asked the cop, ‘What’s the problem? Why do you have my son in handcuffs?’ Just like that.”
The Bernard family's lawyers, Ayanna and Rico Neal, said Tashawn is so “traumatized" that he "doesn’t not want to go outside anymore.”
Amid a backlash from the social media video, the department posted an explanation on Facebook to “provide some background information on this unfortunate misunderstanding."
Police said a witness had described the suspect’s outfit before a person who matched the description ran from an officer into an apartment complex. Another officer saw the child in “a very similar outfit,” stopped him and released him when the officer realized he was not the suspect, police said.
Lawyers for the Bernard family say they have not received any additional details from police other than what was shared on social media. The family is “exploring all legal options," including “the possibility of filing a lawsuit,” lawyers said.
The Associated Press reporters Joey Cappelletti and Corey Williams contributed to this report.
