By Ben Rohrbach
A case of alleged police
brutality has a West Philadelphia community rallying behind a 16-year-old
straight-A student and prep basketball player who underwent emergency surgery
to repair a ruptured testicle after a police stop on his way to a game.
The details -- widely reported
in Philadelphia, including accounts by the city's Daily News and the local FOX
affiliate -- are now the center of an internal affairs investigation.
According to a police report
obtained by the Daily News, Officer Thomas Purcell stopped Darrin Manning on
Jan. 7 (during the height of the polar vortex) after witnessing the teen and
roughly a dozen of his Philadelphia Mathematics, Civics & Sciences Charter
School teammates wearing ski masks and running down the street.
The police report alleges
Manning struck Purcell three times, inflicting no injury but forcing a call for
backup. The report also claimed Manning "didn't complain of any pain"
while being charged with assaulting an officer, resisting arrest and reckless
endangerment.
That's the police's side of the
story, according to the Daily News report. Manning's own account of the
afternoon's events paint a disturbing picture that has many in the community
outraged, organizing town meetings and rallies in his defense.
Manning told multiple media
outlets that his team got off the subway while traveling from their school to
the gym at Philadelphia's Berean Institute for their game against Philly's
Frankfort High. A member of his group "may have said something smart"
to a police officer they perceived to be "staring them down,"
according to Manning's own account.
When the officer approached,
the boys, including Manning, reportedly ran. They were wearing hats, gloves and
scarves -- not ski masks -- given to them by Mathematics, Civics & Sciences
Charter School founder Veronica Joyner to keep warm, Manning said.
But Manning told the Daily News
that he stopped running, simply because, "I didn't do anything
wrong." The sophomore contends multiple police officers
"roughed" him up, struck him with a pair of handcuffs and 'cuffed him
as a female cop allegedly squeezed his genitals so hard during a pat-down that
one of his testicles ruptured.
"She patted me down again,
and then I felt her reach, and she grabbed my butt," Manning told
myfoxphilly.com. "And then she grabbed and squeezed again and pulled down.
And that's when I heard something pop, like I felt it pop."
An unnamed witness corroborated
Manning's account of excessive force to the Daily News.
According to the reports, after
spending eight hours in jail, Manning underwent emergency surgery the following
day at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and remained in a wheelchair at
school a week later. His mother, Ikea Coney, told the Daily News that doctors
believe the injury could potentially prevent him from fathering children.
"I'm just grateful that
they didn't just kill him," Coney told the local FOX affiliate.
Meanwhile, Manning's family has
reportedly hired an attorney in hopes of clearing him of all charges. Community
organizations, including the Pennsylvania State Chapter of Rev. Al Sharpton's
National Action Network, have also come to Manning's defense, reports said.
The police did not comment to
local media, citing their investigation into the incident, but confirmed the
officers would face disciplinary action depending on the outcome.
