Updated: Parents claim Woonsocket Police used excessive force against juveniles at Autumnfest
This post has been updated with video of the parents delivering statements at a press conference.
October 19, 2022, 9:06 am
By Steve Ahlquist
[Update: On Tuesday, October 19 the BLM RI PAC held a press conference in the WWII Memorial Park in Woonsocket, not far from where the Woonsocket police made the arrests. At this press conference parents of the arrested teens and the spouse of the man arrested at the scene read statements. This post has been updated with video of these statements.]
The Black Lives Matter Rhode Island PAC (BLM RI PAC) issued a press release and announced a press conference for Monday taking the Woonsocket Police Department to task for allegedly using excessive force against two 14 year-olds during the city’s annual Autumnfest celebration on October 10. In the press release BLM RI PAC said that on October 12 a group of families reached out to them about the incident.
BLM RI PAC released video on Twitter of the incident:
The parents “had first tried to seek justice through official channels, including the Woonsocket Police Department, but reached out to us when their experience hadn’t been taken seriously,” stated the press release. According to BLM RI PAC, the incident “was sparked by an adult, who has yet to be charged, assaulting multiple minors on camera, which led to a series of unlawful instances of misconduct and use of excessive municipal force on multiple people, including on multiple minors.”
The parents and BLM RI PAC claim the Woonsocket Police violated multiple laws, including:
- Denying the right for the parents to press charges against the assailant who punched and shoved several children.
- Without any obvious lead-up or triggering event, Woonsocket Police used the same deadly knee-on-neck restraint technique that killed George Floyd to restrain an adult bystander who was recording the incident.
- The families reported that, once the minors had been transported to the Woonsocket Police Station, they were unable to gain access to their children for at least 45 minutes. According to the families, one child was interrogated illegally without their parent present and was ridiculed by an officer with name-calling due to their mental health struggles.
After trying to voice concerns about the actions involving members of the Woonsocket Police Department and the man who assaulted multiple children and being unsuccessful, both the families and the man assaulted by Woonsocket Police Department wish to see:
- an open Rhode Island Attorney General investigation, including the release of the Woonsocket Parks Department footage of the incident;
- the repeal of RI’s Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights Law and the implementation of body cameras in the Woonsocket Police Department;
- the arrest of the man who physically assaulted multiple minors, initiating these events; and,
- compensation for the victims’ missed work, medical care, and damaged personal devices.
BLM RI PAC released two statements from parents of the arrested juveniles. They have been edited for clarity.
Parent statement 1:
“On October 10, 2022, my 14 year old daughter was physically attacked not once, but twice, during an incident at the Autumnfest. While trying to stand in between her friend and an adult male that was trying to physically attack him, my daughter was grabbed and thrown out of the way by this man before he punched her friend in the face and then physically assaulted other juveniles. That was the first attack my daughter endured. This man was not detained, not arrested and not charged. He was walked out of the park by an officer. I am demanding that he is arrested and charged for the numerous assaults he perpetrated against minors, as witnessed by many in the park. Arrest reports corroborate the fact that a bystander TOLD officers he saw this man strike juveniles and stepped in to intervene. Not arresting this man was the first example of police misconduct in this situation.
“The second attack on my daughter came at the hands of Officer Ed Doura and MULTIPLE other members of the Woonsocket Police Department during their unnecessary arrests. I will not reiterate the details, as the videos speak for themselves, but I will address the fact that before any arrests, Officer Doura was behind my daughter pushing her out of the park while she face-timed me to ask to be picked up and explain the situation and he proceeded to mock her and make peace signs and stick his tongue out at me. At the station she was called “slow” by Officer Matt Richardson, after it been revealed to officers that she suffers from mental health issues.
“I was refused the opportunity to see her or speak to her and even after I told officers not to speak to her or ask questions, they continued to tell her that if she didn’t tell them who she knew that was a drug dealer or criminal, they would hold her for six hours and then tell all of her friends that she is a “snitch.” I took that as a threat to my child; them spreading false information about her to her peers could potentially endanger her safety. Immediately after the incident, I was not allowed to file a report at the station against the man that had put his hands on my daughter and in the days following the incident, I was refused access to my daughter’s arrest report. When I did receive the police report and witness statements, after the ACLU requested that Chief Oates release them to us, the reports contained many falsehoods and discrepancies. I am asking the Attorney General’s office investigate any and every officer that was involved in this incident on October 10th and I will not stop until justice is served!”
Parent statement 2:
“I’m the mother of a minor child that was at the Autumfest event on October 10th at approximately 5pm. My daughter was in line at a ride with friends and a family member (all minors). There was a minor boy that was about to be coming off a ride who they know. As my daughter, friends and cousin were in line they overheard a man that was standing with a minor child (his son) stating on the phone, he didnt know how this was all going to end as he was waiting for the minor boy to come off the ride. The minor girls, hearing this, hurried to where the minor boy was exiting to prevent this man and minor child from getting to him. There, my daughter’s cousin, trying to protect the minor boy, had her arms up in attempt to block the minor that was with this man from going towards the minor exiting the ride. My daughter’s minor cousin was then attacked, grabbed and thrown out of the way by this adult man as he goes and punches this boy in the face. The boy started bleeding from the mouth and fell to the ground surrounded by several witnesses. My daughter screamed, “What are you doing?” as she ran in effort to protect the minor boy. She tried moving the man and boy apart, getting thrown with force by this man who assaulted the boy. The man proceeded to assault another female minor.
“A stranger (adult male, name unknown to me) stepped in to help the minors and had a physical altercation with the assaulter. Cops came in at this point, the now large group told police the minor girls and minor boy were just assaulted. The assaulter was let go after telling the cops whatever he said and the teenagers, including my daughter, were told to leave without being heard by biased officers on scene. As they were leaving (scared, upset, confused) and still trying to say their half, police proceeded to provoke and harass the group, including my daughter. A bystander started filming and was witness to the unnecessary behavior of police officers, letting the officers know that the behavior was not necessary from the fellow officers.
“A melee quickly happened when a teenager was thrown to the ground by multiple officers holding her down with force as she screamed, “I can’t breathe.” Witnesses told the young woman not to worry, everything will be okay, but she was still on the ground saying she didn’t do anything. The cops refused to release her.
“While walking her to the police car my daughter was told to keep walking or she would be hurt. I believe if the witness/bystander was not there recording the provoking, bullying, and brutality of the officers would have been far worse against the teenagers arrested.
“At the police station, my daughter, friend, and cousin were denied parent access even though they asked several times and were told our rights – my rights as a parent and her rights and were also denied filing a police report of the assault on her. [We were] denied filing a police report for all teenagers arrested. Police refused to allow the mother of the boy to file charges on the adult man who punched her son. Police officers refused to be of help, we were laughed at and mocked for the entire incident.
“The cops were more focused on the “disrespect” and words used by the minors than anything else. Woonsocket has a very famous slogan, “Give respect, get respect.” It is this slogan that’s used in schools and taught to our children that its stands for all.
[During the arrests] “a young lady was thrown to the ground and as she screamed “I can’t breathe,” the witness yells out not to worry he has everything on video, Police started to approach him and his daughter saying back up, as the daughter was backing up the witness repeatedly said do not touch her (his daughter) or me. He turned to the officer to make sure he’s on video and was jumped [from] behind [by] another officer, forcing him to the ground and holding his head and neck down with the knee that could have killed him and then placed him wrongfully under arrest.“My daughter was recording the incident of the bystander being attacked by police while on east school street behind Autumfest walls. She turned and saw her cousin being thrown by multiple officers, with force, onto a cement wall as she was placed under arrest. She screamed and ran to her. The cops then forcibly grabbed, threw, and slammed my daughter’s head into a cement bench, then threw her to the ground with force. Witnessing this act against my daughter, was and is not justified. My daughter could have been killed by the actions of the officers.
“As she was on the ground she was screaming, “Let me go, I didn’t do anything.” The responses by these minors and witness to law enforcement were all justifiable and normal when automatically disrespected, judged, judged by a last name, looks, their choice of words expressing the freedom of speech, and treated unfairly from the start – before assaults occurred and during the melee that was avoidable had the police served and protected the minor victims from the start.
“We want justice for the injustice that was brought upon the innocent in this very unnecessary situation! Upon personally viewing my daughters police report, it was very clear that each statement I read was very conflicting and contradictory. Two of these statements placed my daughter in two separate areas of arrest an incident itself. Other statements had nothing to personally write about my daughter at all. These minors and witness that were arrested were standing up for what is right and as result of doing so injustice was received [from] all the officers involved.”
Also speaking was the spouse of the man who was arrested at the park that day, who had an officer’s knees on the back of his head and on his back while he was being arrested.
Harrison Tuttle, Executive Director of BLM RI PAC and Alex Kithes, Executive Director of Rebuild Woonsocket:
