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Family claims police dislocated Black teen’s shoulder during rough arrest

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Police in McKinney, Texas, are disputing allegations of racism and excessive force levied by a family that’s accused two officers of slamming their 14-year-old son to the ground, placing him in a chokehold and dislocating his shoulder, reports ABC News.

The family shared on social media a cellphone video that appears to show McKinney Police Department officers arresting Jasper Miller, a freshman football player at Allen High School, after he was kicked out of a movie theater for allegedly being disruptive. The video appeared to be deleted late Thursday night. At one point, one of the officers appears to sit on Jasper’s back and stretch his arm behind him, according to his attorney – a maneuver that the family said left him with bruises and a dislocated shoulder.

Police bodycam footage from the scene captured teenage bystanders as they yelled and pleaded for the officers not to “break his arm.” “One of them had him in a chokehold and slammed him down, the other one got on top of him and literally ripped his arm apart – he has a separated AC joint,” family attorney Kim Cole told ABC News on Wednesday.

“This is unacceptable. McKinney continues to ignore the pleas of their Black and brown citizens.” But McKinney Mayor George Fuller said the incident had been misrepresented on social media. “There has been a short cell phone clip of the actual police contact and arrest posted by several people, but not any footage of the events/context in which the arrest took place,” Fuller said in a statement Wednesday. “Upon review of the bodycam footage, it is empirically clear that Jasper Miller resisted all directives given by the theater management and police officers, despite being warned repeatedly that he would be arrested if he did not comply with their requests.”

Jasper was taken into custody on Saturday after he and his friends were ordered to leave a movie theater. Jasper says he was waiting for a ride along with his friends, who are also Black, when he was cited for criminal trespass. Cole said the arrest was unjustified because the teens were waiting for a ride and had nowhere to go. She believes the officers, who are White, targeted the teens because they are Black.

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