Family of black boy whose neck deputy knelt on files lawsuit
Columbia Basin Herald | UPDATED 5 years, 5 months AGO
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The mother of a 12-year-old African American boy filed a $300,000 lawsuit Thursday, saying three Clackamas County Sheriff’s deputies pinned him down to the ground -- one by kneeling on his neck.
The incident happened last August, over nine months before the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police sparked widespread national outrage.
Lawyers for the boy, Ka’Mar Benbo, say he committed no crimes and was a witness to a fight between two girls that he didn’t know at Clackamas Town Center. As he and friends were leaving the mall’s parking lot, deputies responding to a call about the fight ordered the group to sit down and then “pounced” on Benbo -- elbowing him in the face in the process, said Portland attorney Greg Kafoury.
“The (deputy) keeps a knee on his neck long after he was handcuffed,” Kafoury said. “The kids around him are yelling ‘He’s 12 years old!’”
Kafoury said Benbo, too, pleaded with the deputies by telling them he was 12, but the deputies didn’t let up. The lawsuit says Benbo had difficulty breathing.
The deputies ultimately let Benbo go and no criminal charges were filed “because he didn’t do anything,” Kafoury said. The lawsuit says Benbo suffered scrapes and bruises, headaches, loss of sleep and feelings of racial stigmatization and “fear of police.”
A spokesperson for the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday from The Oregonian/OregonLive.
Benbo’s mother filed a complaint after the incident with the sheriff’s office. The sheriff’s office wrote her a letter saying “we have completed a thorough investigation” and the deputy was exonerated.
“The fact that the officer was exonerated means he was clearly within policy, and that’s one more reason why we need to ban knees to the neck and all types of chokeholds in the Legislature this special session,” said attorney Jason Kafoury, who also is representing Benbo and his mother in the suit against the Sheriff's Office.
Gov. Kate Brown has called a special session of the state Legislature June 24 -- with the intention of passing legislation reforming police policies and accountability.