On Mar. 24, a Georgia teen was tased by a police officer for vaping. According to the officer, the teen was resisting arrest. The incident was caught on video and went viral on social media, drawing claims that the teen was not resisting arrest and prompting the police to investigate the incident further.
A police statement reported the unidentified 17-year-old was at an Atlanta park around 4:30 p.m. when the officer approached him and told him that vaping was not allowed at the park. The teen walked away and continued vaping. The officer asked to see his ID, intending to write him a ticket.
“The male refused to comply and physically resisted the officer’s efforts to detain him,” the police said in the statement. “The male continued resisting detention and the officer eventually utilized her taser to detain him.”
After being tased, the officer handcuffed the teen, took him into custody, and charged him with disorderly conduct. According to a family member who spoke with CBS46, the teen spent the night in jail.
The viral video showing the officer tasing the teen was originally posted on the @ATLuncensored Instagram account but has since been taken down.
“We are aware of the incident and we are aware of the video circulating on social media showing a portion of the encounter,” officials for the Atlanta Police Department said in a statement. “We will be reviewing the entire video related to this incident to determine all of the facts.”
Brendan Aldridge, who claims to have witnessed the incident, told WSB-TV that the teen never resisted.
“He was only vaping. She asked him for his ID. He was being calm, he wasn’t being like, ‘No, I’m not going to show you my ID.’ She tased him,” Aldridge said. “It was crazy, because while he was on the ground, shaking, she was like, ‘Get down, get down,’ like he wasn’t already on the ground.”
Chyanne Thomas, the teen’s aunt, told CBS46 that the family will be pursuing legal action.
“That really put him in a situation that he was never supposed to experience at his age,” Thomas said. “ I looked at the video, he never once charged at her. He didn’t approach her, she was scared of him because he’s a big black dude.”
