Two local parents say Hollywood Police abused their 17-year-old son when they arrested him after a chase earlier this month.
An officer spotted Alexis Cabrera weaving as he drove his girlfriend’s car on Aug. 14 and tried to make a traffic stop, but Cabrera fled, according to a police report. In the ensuing chase a male passenger jumped out and ran away, and Cabrera went through three red lights. When he was cornered he backed up and intentionally ran into a police car, according to the report.
But when police pulled Cabrera out of the car at the intersection of Phippen Waiters Road and West Dixie Highway in Dania Beach, they put him on the ground and handcuffed him – and then they roughed him up for no reason, his mother Michelle Surgeon said.
Surveillance video from a duplex there shows police taking short swings at Cabrera. One officer has his knee on Cabrera’s neck most of the time, and that officer later knees him twice in the head, the video shows.
"When I seen that video, I cried, seeing my underage son getting beat up by six men,” said the teenager’s father, Agustin Cabrera.
He added, “I just think it was a total abuse of the police officers because my son had his arms down, he never resist."
Hollywood Police had no comment except to say they are doing an internal affairs investigation.
Local
Footage Captured McDonald's Armed Robbery
Marijuana was found in the car Cabrera was driving, according to the police report. He is being held in the Broward Juvenile Detention Center and faces charges of possession of marijuana, aggravated battery on an officer and resisting an officer without violence.
Surgeon said she can understand that police were upset.
“They had to chase him, go ahead and arrest him, he goes to jail and gets in trouble, but to punch him repeatedly in the face so his whole face is bruised, to knee him when he's down in handcuffs, to stomp him, there's no need for that, at all, whatsoever,” she said.
Surgeon and her husband, who have hired a lawyer, said they will pursue filing a complaint.
