SILVER SPRING, Md. — Officials have released body camera video of a deadly encounter between police and a black teenager who died after struggling with officers in a town on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, footage that fueled a civil rights group’s call for an independent investigation.
Greensboro Police Chief Mike Petyo released the footage after a county prosecutor announced Thursday that he isn’t asking a grand jury to consider criminal charges in the September 2018 death of 19-year-old Anton Black.
The video shows Black’s mother screaming after police chased her son to his family’s home, where an officer smashed a car window and shocked Black with a stun gun before the teen struggled with three officers and a civilian. The footage also captured how Black’s mother and officers reacted when they realized he stopped responding.
Caroline County State’s Attorney Joseph Riley said in a statement that his office “is not empowered to prosecute tragic acts.” An autopsy report, signed Wednesday by the state’s chief medical examiner, says Black’s congenital heart condition, mental illness and stress from the struggle likely contributed to his death.
Lawyers for Black’s family vowed Thursday to ask the U.S. Justice Department’s civil rights division to investigate his death. The American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland joined their call for a federal investigation or an independent investigation by the governor-appointed Maryland State Prosecutor, whose office investigates misconduct in office by public officials or employees.
The group said in a statement Friday that the “disturbing” video shows officers used excessive force on a man who shouldn’t have been arrested.
“The ACLU is outraged by the gross delay in the handling and release of information related to the autopsy and police body camera footage, which raises significant red flags that local law enforcement agencies have something to hide in Anton’s death,” the statement says.
Riley told The Baltimore Sun that his office’s investigation remains open.
“If I am provided new information,” he said, “that could potentially change my position.”
Family attorneys had urged Riley to convene a grand jury for the investigation. They claim police used excessive force on the teen and argue the autopsy report mischaracterizes his death as accidental.
“The autopsy raises serious questions about why such a high degree of force was used on an unarmed teenager on his own property who posed no threat to law enforcement or the public,” Timothy Maloney, one of the family lawyers, wrote in an email Thursday.
The encounter began when Greensboro Police Department officer Thomas Webster IV responded to a 911 call from a woman who drove by and said she saw the teenager dragging a 12-year-old boy down a street. Lawyers for Black’s family say he merely was playing with a longtime friend and wasn’t harming the child.
Petyo, the police chief, said the woman who called 911 didn’t know Black or the 12-year-old boy.
Webster told investigators he saw Black pin the 12-year-old against the hood of his patrol car, according to the statement from the state’s attorney. Black identified himself as the 12-year-old’s brother, but the body camera video shows the boy denying that.
The video then shows officers chase Black before he locked himself inside a car parked outside his family’s home. An officer used a baton to break the driver’s side window and then shocked Black with a Taser through the broken window before the teen got out and began struggling with the officers.
