Shocking video has been released of Deputy Manuel Van Santen violently attacking a 15-year-old boy in a group home in Arizona. The melee started when a woman working at a group home in Tucson called the police around 10 a.m. on Sept. 26, saying the 15-year-old, was screaming and had knocked over a garbage can. Allegedly he was upset because he wanted to go back to school.
The boy who who lived at the group home, began yelling and tried to move past Deputy Van Santen when he arrived, Mr. Feinman said. That’s when the deputy tackled him and pinned him down in a headlock.
“It’s a horrible spectacle,” said Joel Feinman, the teenager’s lawyer. “He was assaulted by a man with a badge and a gun, just screamed and cursed at.”
Another 16-year-old resident of the group home was eating his breakfast in the next room, started recording the altercation on his cellphone after the boy was tackled, according to Mr. Feinman. The video shows the assaulted limbless boy on the floor frantically screaming for the officer to release him.
After nearly two minutes on the ground, he stopped protesting and the deputy stood up, continuing to yell at the boy. When the 16-year-old recording the incident interrupted the deputy, he was also arrested.
The Pima County Attorney’s Office dropped the charges against Immanuel after seeing the video. “Our office was not given any opportunity to review this video until Nov. 14,” Mr. Mosher said Sunday. “The same day we first saw the video, we took action to dismiss the charges pertaining to this incident.”
Deputy Van Santen, an 11-year veteran of the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, was placed on administrative leave pending an internal investigation.
