The mayor of Phoenix is apologizing to the city following recently
released video
Viral
footage
"I am deeply sorry for what this family went through, and I apologize to our community," Gallego
said on Twitter
The episode happened last month when Dravon Ames, 22, his fiancée, Iesha Harper, 24, along with their two young daughters, London Drake, 1, and Island Drake, who is 4, visited a Family Dollar store. Unbeknownst to the parents, one of their daughters had swiped a doll from the store without paying for it.
Police say they were tipped off about the alleged shoplifting by a store employee just as the family's car was leaving the parking lot, and police followed the car. Police eventually cornered the vehicle in the apartment complex of the family's babysitter.
A heated standoff ensued.
Cell phone
videos taken
Police wrote in
an incident report
In the parents'
civil rights claim
The filing from the family alleges that Ames was thrown against a vehicle and kicked so hard that he collapsed before a police officer "kept his knee between the father's legs. He punched the father very hard in the back for no reason," the parents' lawyer, Thomas Horne, wrote in the claim.
Harper passed off her baby to a bystander before police handcuffed her and her fiancé and they were placed in police patrol car.
"I could have shot you in front of your f***ing kids," an officer said to her, according to the family's claim.
Horne alleges that the incident violated the family's civil rights by committing battery, unlawfully imprisoning them and causing the parents and their kids emotional distress. The claim is seeking $10 million in damages.
Since the it happened, the family's 4-year-old has been experiencing nightmares and wetting the bed out of distress, according to the filing.
Phoenix Police Department Chief Jeri Williams told the public an internal investigation is being conducted over the incident.
"I, like you, am disturbed by the language and the actions of our officer," Williams said in a
video the police department posted to Facebook
The doll was returned to Family Dollar, officials said. And though nobody faced charges stemming from the alleged shoplifting, authorities issued Ames a traffic ticket for driving on a suspended license and impounded his car.
His lawyer says he is limping from having been roughed up by police, and he now has no way to drive to his job as a warehouse worker.
Gallego, the Phoenix mayor, said in response to the incident, the city will be speeding up its implementation of police body-worn cameras across the entire police department. She has also scheduled a public meeting with the police chief for the community to air its thoughts about the troubling footage of the police interaction.
"We owe it to our residents," she said. "To give them an open forum to discuss their concerns with us and to propose solutions."
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