Teen injured by Austin police after mistakenly identified as suspect, mother says
Teen injured by APD after mistakenly identified as suspect
A mother is angry after she said her 16-year-old son was handcuffed and injured by Austin police officers. She claims he was mistakenly identified as a suspect they were looking for. This happened in Southeast Austin after APD served an arrest and search warrant at the apartment complex where the teen lived.
AUSTIN, Texas - A mother is upset after her 16-year-old son was injured and detained by Austin police officers after they mistakenly identified him as a wanted suspect.
This happened June 7 after APD was trying to serve a search and arrest warrant for someone living at the same Southeast Austin apartment complex the teen lives at.
The teen decided to remain anonymous after what happened. He told FOX 7 Austin that day he decided to check out what was going on after seeing a heavy police presence outside his apartment building.
He remembers going outside and an officer immediately asking him to identify himself. He then remembers the police putting him in handcuffs.
"How, how, how? I was, I just came downstairs. I just came downstairs," he said.
Police told him he matched the description of a suspect they were looking for. The teen said he had no idea what they were talking about.
"I was kind of scared when that happened though because it was a whole bunch of guns out and stuff, and it was like, right in front of me telling me I look like this person," he said.
He said police told him his hair matched the suspect’s hair.
"I was just a little scared that they were going to light me up because they said I look like somebody because of my hair," said the teen.
His mother, who also decided to remain anonymous, said she drove to the scene after being made aware of the situation.
"I drove from work and I saw the SWAT team. It was like 20 of them and a whole bunch of police outside, and they had my son surrounded, and he was on the ground," she said.
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The mother said she jumped into action and repeatedly told the police her son was not the person they were looking for. She said that is when police told her they identified him by his hair.
"Then they also stated that Black people look alike by the hair," she said.
She remembers being shocked and scared for her son. She said she continually tried to prove her son was not the suspect. She even asked to see the suspect’s photo, but she said police would not listen to her.
The teen said police grabbed and squeezed his shoulder forcing him to sit down. A move that caused an injury to his neck.
His mom said it took four officials to identify him before police released him.
Austin Police released two statements to FOX 7 Austin on the incident:
"On June 7, 2023, APD officers served an arrest and search warrant at 1800 S IH 35. A juvenile individual who matched the description of the suspect was detained. The juvenile was not compliant with the officers resulting in minor use of force to assist in detaining the juvenile. No injuries were observed after this investigation. The juvenile was later released. As this incident is part of an ongoing investigation, we do not have any further information to provide."
"As the on-scene investigation continued, the juvenile's identity was confirmed not to be that of the suspect. No further information is available at this time."
"They didn't even apologize and say sorry, or even let us know why they even grabbed him," said the mom.
The mother said she filed a complaint with APD.
"Why did [the police] not believe me? And it makes me feel like I can’t trust police to help or protect me," she said.