17-year-old vaping in park gets tasered by Georgia cop, viral video shows
.png "A Twitter and Instagram account shared video of the teen being tasered by police.")
A Georgia police officer tasered and arrested a teen after he vaped in a park and the officer said he “resisted” arrest. A video of the incident and claims that the teen was not resisting went viral on social media, causing police to further investigate the incident.
A 17-year-old was at an Atlanta park around 4:30 p.m. on March 24 when an officer noticed him vaping, police said in a statement.
The officer told the teen he could not vape in the park, but he walked away and continued to vape, according to police. The officer then asked for his identification so she could issue him a ticket.
“The male refused to comply and physically resisted the officer’s efforts to detain him,” police said in the statement. “The male continued resisting detention and the officer eventually utilized her taser to detain him.”
After being tasered, the teen was handcuffed and taken into custody. The 17-year-old was charged with disorderly conduct, and a family member said he spent the night in jail, CBS46 reported.
A 10-second viral video posted to the Twitter account @ATLuncensored shows the officer pull her taser out and use it while the 17-year-old stands in front of her.
The video, originally posted to the account’s Instagram page, has since been taken down from that platform.
“Get on the ground now!” she screams to the teen as she tasered him. While being tasered, the 17-year-old stood in place in front of her.
The Atlanta Police Department acknowledged the video and said an investigation into the incident is ongoing.
“We are aware of the incident and we are aware of the video circulating on social media showing a portion of the encounter,” officials said in the statement. “We will be reviewing the entire video related to this incident to determine all of the facts.”
One person who told WSB-TV that he witnessed the tasing said the 17-year-old never resisted arrest.
“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,” Brendon Aldridge told the news outlet. “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.”
A family member told CBS46 they plan on pursuing legal action after the teen’s arrest.
“He wasn’t ready for that,” Chyanne Thomas, his aunt, told the outlet. “That really put him in a situation that he was never supposed to experience at his age. 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.”
This story was originally published March 28, 2022 at 6:24 PM.
