A video posted on Twitter shows Metro Transit Police taking into custody a crying 13-year-old boy who refused provide his mother's name or number after he was stopped for "horseplay" Thursday night.
According to police, two officers on a Green Line train saw two boys grabbing each other as if they were in a fight on the platform at the Shaw-Howard Metro Station. The officers got off the train to see if they were fighting, and the boys said they were just playing.
An officer told them they couldn’t play like that and asked for the name and phone number of a parent or guardian, police said.
The 13-year-old boy refused multiple times, police said. When he stood up from a bench where police had sat him down, an officer moved closer to him and the boy pushed him.
The officer told him he was being arrested for assaulting a police officer and attempted to put him in handcuffs, which the boy resisted, police said.
After the boy was handcuffed, the man recording the video of the arrest accused the officers of harassing the boy.
“He committed horseplaying,” the officer explained.
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The boy’s mother was contacted, and the boy was taken to Children’s Hospital complaining of pain to his hands and back, police said.
At the hospital, the boy kicked another police officer, police said.
Police said there have been no complaints from the boy’s family or outside social media. Police also said they reached out to the person who tweeted the video to interview him further and continue with a citizen’s complaint.
