Arizona couple files $10M lawsuit
after cops allegedly pull guns on family after 4-year-old steals doll
By Nicole Darrah | Fox News
An Arizona couple filed a $10
million lawsuit against the city of Phoenix claiming policeofficers committed
civil rights violations after video showed them allegedly pointing guns at the
two after their 4-year-old daughter stole a doll from a dollar store last
month.
Dravon Ames and Iesha Harper, of
Phoenix, who filed the legal claim on Wednesday, said that on May 29, they went
to a Family Dollar Store with their children, London, 1, and Island, 4. Island,
they said, took a doll from the store without their knowledge.
The couple said they drove to
their babysitter's apartment complex, when a police car pulled up behind them,
pulled open the driver's side door of their car and began shouting profanities
at them in front of the kids.
The parents said an officer
injured London by pulling on one of her arms after the mother refused a command
to put the child down because she said the girl couldn't walk and the pavement
was hot, and also said Ames was injured by police who erroneously claimed he
wasn't complying with their commands after Ames exited the vehicle that the
family was traveling in.
An officer is accused of throwing
Ames against a vehicle, kicking his leg so hard that Ames collapsed and punching
him for no reason. The claim said one of the officers profanely told Ames in
front of his children that he was going to shoot him in the face.
Video posted online seemingly
shows officers yelling, "Get your f---ing hands up" and "you're
gonna get f---ing shot!"
"My hands are up! My hands are up!"
22yo Dravon Ames says as a Phoenix police officer yells to "get your
fucking hands up." The same officer later says "You're gonna fucking
get shot!"
Ames says the officers stopped
him after his child walked out of a Dollar Store with a doll.
Phoenix Police Department Chief
Jeri Williams said on Friday that she began an internal investigation as soon
as she found out what was happening.
"I, like you, am disturbed
by the language and the actions of our officer. I assure you that this incident
is not representative of the majority of Phoenix police officers who serve this
city," Williams said.
The police department claims the
incident happened on May 27, and described a different version of events. While
the parents' attorney said the child and father were injured in the encounter,
police said no injuries were reported to them.
Police, in a Facebook post on
Saturday, also said there were other stolen items in the vehicle during the
encounter besides the doll.
The department said an officer
was at the dollar store on an unrelated shoplifting call when store employees
told him about another shoplifting complaint and directed him toward a vehicle
that was leaving the parking lot as the officer approached. The officer had
told Ames, who was driving the vehicle, to stop, but he didn't, police said.
Another woman who was inside the
vehicle was dropped off at another location before the family reached the
apartment complex. She had three outstanding misdemeanor warrants and was
booked, police said.
Police said Harper, the mother of
the two children, remained in the vehicle and later explained that she believed
one of her daughters had stolen the doll because they didn't have any money.
Both parents were handcuffed and
detained inside police vehicles, but they were eventually released, Tom Horne,
an attorney representing the family, said.
No one was charged with
shoplifting because the property was returned, and store employees didn't want
the case prosecuted, police said. But Ames was given a traffic citation for
driving on a suspended license.
Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego said
in a statement that she's "sick over what I have seen in the video
depicting Phoenix police interacting with a family and young children."
She called the situation "completely inappropriate and clearly
unprofessional."
The mayor added the city is
"speeding up" the use of police body cameras. "Every single
precinct will have body-worn cameras by August," she said.
Rapper Jay-Z's "Team
Roc" has reached out to the family to provide legal support, and has
called for the police officers involved to be fired.
The officers involved have since
been assigned to desk duty as the department investigates.
The Associated Press contributed
to this report.
