Teen arrested on camera by Minneapolis police officer sues, alleging excessive force

A young Minneapolis man filed a lawsuit Wednesday alleging that police officers violated his civil rights in March by using excessive force while unlawfully arresting him and then subjecting him to "prolonged continued detention without probable cause."

Filed in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, the suit against the city of Minneapolis and five officers asks for damages in excess of $75,000. It's the latest policing-related lawsuit against the city, which is already under federal investigation for its use-of-force practices.

Damareion McKizzie was 17 years old on March 24 when officer William Gregory punched him on the 3200 block of James Avenue N. The arrest was documented both on body-worn camera and civilian-recorded video. Gregory and four other officers had been dispatched to the area around 4 p.m. to apprehend carjacking suspects, the department said.

McKizzie, who is now 18, didn't know the reason for the officers' presence at the time. According to the complaint, he had been working out at a nearby gym when he "heard the commotion" of police outside and exited to see what was happening.

He attempted to cross the street but was blocked by Gregory who "violently shoved" him, the complaint says. Though McKizzie did not resist, the lawsuit claims, the other officers grabbed at McKizzie's hoodie, pulling him in different directions — which is documented on video.

It was then that Gregory "threw a violent punch at the back of McKizzie's head," the complaint said. "Gregory, who has six complaints on his record and no reprimands, then punched McKizzie in the face, before throwing him violently to the ground."

Citing the active lawsuit, the Police Department declined to comment. A city spokesperson said the City Attorney's Office "still needs to review the lawsuit, as it was just filed" and declined to provide further comment.

"We hope that the city acknowledges the officers' conduct and hopefully that it's part of a larger change that we hope will occur, and hopefully continue to occur, within the Police Department," said McKizzie's attorney, Charlie Alden.

Gregory is the only officer confirmed in the allegations and named as a defendant along with the city. The other four are listed as John Does, pending confirmation of their identities in discovery.

"As a direct and proximate result of the Defendants' actions," the complaint says, "Mr. McKizzie has been injured, suffering physical, mental and emotional pain, discomfort, embarrassment, professional humiliation, fear, anxiety, apprehension, sleeplessness, a generally diminished sense of personal and family safety."

Immediately following the incident, a grassroots activist group, the Racial Justice Network, released a nearly four-minute video of it on Facebook, and the Police Department internal affairs unit launched an investigation.

A Minneapolis police spokesman would not comment on Gregory's status with the department.

The lawsuit claims that throughout the March incident, McKizzie wasn't told what he had done or the reason for his detention. Officers transported him back and forth between a squad car and the Hennepin County Juvenile Detention Center before putting him in an ambulance — all while handcuffed, the complaint says. They strapped him to the medical gurney using two sets of handcuffs and "multiple layers of polyester webbing over his body," it says.

After McKizzie spent 30 minutes in the hospital under police custody, the officers again transported him to the detention center around 6:30 p.m., where they uncuffed him for the first time and his mother arrived to pick him up, the lawsuit claims. He was never charged.

Christina Saint Louis • 612-673-4668