WATCH: Cops Mistake Man for Suspect, Grind Muzzle of Rifle Into His Head

Grand Rapids, MI — Dramatic body camera footage released this week shows a Grand Rapids Police Officer holding the muzzle of his AR-15 rifle to the head of an unarmed man who was subdued, in a seeming attempt to torment him. On Tuesday, after they investigated themselves, Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker said—in spite of the glaring violation of rights caught on video—no charges will be filed against the officer.

“Placing the barrel of a gun on the head of a suspect being arrested is completely inappropriate, offensive, and against any training protocol put out by the Grand Rapids Police Department or any other department in Kent County,” Becker said in a statement on Tuesday, Oct. 3.

However, despite the officer’s actions being all those things, he will not face any legal consequences.

The incident happened on August 19 and appeared to be a case of mistaken identity. That night, officers were responding to a call of an alleged armed robbery and when they showed up they saw a 28-year-old homeless man who fit the description.

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According to the report, the man was drunk and refused to cooperate by lowering and raising his hands. So, Sgt. Neil Gomez then deployed his taser and the man was immediately brought to the ground.

From this point forward, it should’ve been a simple procedure: place him and handcuffs and determine that he is not the man they are looking for.

However, that is not what happened. Instead, Officer Kevin Penn—seemingly drunk on his sadistic authority—began digging the muzzle of his rifle into the suspects head, tormenting him physically and verbally.

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“Former Officer Penn took it one step further,” Becker wrote. “He put the barrel of his gun to the suspect’s head. … He indicated to investigators when interviewed he felt he had to place the gun there for fear of possibly hitting the other officers due to close proximity if he did have to fire, and to try and control the individual’s head as he was not complying with commands. This once again is nothing police are trained in, nor something that an officer is supposed to do, but the behavior does not rise to the level of a criminal offense under this set of facts.”

When watching the video, the idea that this officer’s behavior does not rise to a criminal offense is as insulting as it is asinine.

“The suspect makes a crying noise, and states, ‘That hurts bro,’ and Officer Penn immediately responds with, ‘Yes it does,"” according to an Internal Affairs report, obtained by MLive under a Freedom of Information request.

“The muzzle is still pressed against the suspect’s head and Officer (James) Smith tells Officer Penn, ‘All right Kevin’ and pushes the rifle away from the suspect’s head with his head,” an Internal Affairs report said.

“As Officer Penn moves back, the suspect continues asking what he did and states, ‘Man, that hurted man. …"”

The report stated and the video confirmed that the muzzle of the rifle was used to force the suspect’s head down. Luckily Penn did not kill the otherwise entirely innocent man.

The suspect was then arrested on the standard ‘resisting arrest’ charges and later released on his own recognizance. Because he was drunk, the suspect did not remember the incident, which is likely the reason he never filed a complaint. However, after the release of this video, all that may change once an attorney sees the possibility of such an open and shut case.

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“We do not condone the behavior of the officer, nor should this been seen as approval for this technique in the future,” Becker wrote. “It is simply under these specific facts we are not charging the former officer … .”

The silver lining to this incident is, although Penn was allowed to resign without charges, he was at least caught because good cops saw his actions and reported him.

‘Don’t Shoot Me’: Video Shows Cops Hold 5 Innocent Children at Gunpoint for Playing Basketball

Grand Rapids, MI — Outraged community leaders in Grand Rapids are demanding reform after five African American youths aged between 12 and 14 years were held at gunpoint — for no justifiable reason — as they walked home from playing basketball. Pressure on the department by The Grand Rapids Press through a Freedom of Information Act request finally forced them to release the body camera footage which is nothing short of horrifying. 

As the Free Thought Project reported last week, original video of the incident, taken from far away, shows a number of Grand Rapids Police Department patrol cars descended on the scene, as officers point loaded weapons at the youths, order them to the ground, and eventually place them each in handcuffs — after a vague call to dispatch suggested a large fight in the area, and the possibility a teen was in possession of a gun. 

None of the young teens in question were armed.

“Now they’re saying they don’t like the police,” Ikeshia Quinn, mother of two of the teens, told WOOD-TV — intimating the boys did not feel ambivalent toward law enforcement until this traumatic incident. “They don’t want to be involved with the police. They should’ve been approached differently because they are young boys. They had basketballs in their hands.”

As the body camera footage begins, Officer Caleb Johnson pulls up to the boys and immediately points his weapon at them and demands they get on the ground.

“Get on the ground!” Johnson tells the boys.

Three of the children were so confused that they did not immediately comply. Luckily they weren’t shot.

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“Hey, get over here,” Johnson said, motioning with his arm. “Keep your hands where I can see them and get on the ground.”

“Can you please put the gun down?” one of the boys asked.

Another youth is heard saying, “I do not want to die, bro.”

“We are not about to die we didn’t do nothing,” another of the boys says to try and comfort him.

“Don’t shoot me,” one of the boys pleads with the officers.

The entire time, the boys are trying to explain to the police that they were not involved in any of this mess and they have the video to prove it.

“Calm down, calm down, it’ll be alright,” Officer Johnson says as he has his finger on the trigger of his police issued pistol as its trained on the boys. “They’ll give you directions, OK?”

As more officers arrived, the boys were instructed to stand up, put their hands on their heads, and walk backward slowly toward the car. They were then all placed in handcuffs while officers figured out they were assaulted with deadly weapons for the sole act of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

After being wrongly detained for 10 minutes, the officers then called the boys’ parents to come pick them up. When the parents got there, naturally they were shaken up and furious to find out their children had been held at gunpoint because police mistook them for criminals.

“I’m sorry, I don’t mean no disrespect, but you all have to understand that’s my baby,” said Shawndryka Moore, mother of one of the boys, crying as she stood outside of the police cruiser with her son inside, as reported by mLive. “We don’t deal with police. I don’t have charges. We don’t do this. All this stuff that goes on in this world – I worry about my kids every day. That’s why I don’t let them go nowhere.”

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“We hate that it had to get to that point,” officer Troy Colegrove said. “We’re just doing our job because a lot of people out here have guns. We’re not saying that your kids have guns – we’re just doing our job,” Colegrove reiterated to the mother of an innocent child he just held at gunpoint.

Sadly, Colegrove is right. They were just doing their jobs — which requires the utmost attention to officer safety while acting in careless disregard for the citizens, even if they are children.

Although Grand Rapids Police Chief David Rahinsky and Mayor Rosalynn Bliss have since apologized for officers’ handling of the situation, fallout from the March 24 incident continues.

“The officers didn’t do anything wrong. They acted on articulate facts from a witness moments earlier who said he saw them hand a gun to each other,” Rahinsky said previously to The Press. “I think when the community sees what we’ve seen — with the body worn camera footage; I think they’ll have a different opinion. I respect their emotion. I think what we’re hearing is a lot of grief and frustration to systemic issues.”

A statement released by local police union leaders further exacerbated tensions between community leaders — who feel that if this incident represents standard protocol, change is imperative — and officers who see nothing of concern.

Local NAACP president Cle Jackson told local NBC News affiliate, WOOD-TV, “If this is protocol, in terms of how you detain and treat teens and youth, then there probably needs to be a change in that protocol.”

As mLive reports, this week the city announced results of a racial profiling traffic stop study showing bias in the police department who follows that very ‘protocol.’ Black drivers are twice as likely to be stopped by police in Grand Rapids than non-black drivers, according to a study done of 2013-2015 data.

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“The issue is not about having bad police officers,” LINC UP executive director Jeremy DeRoo explained. “The issue is there’s a protocol in place that is causing significant damage to the relationship between the people and the police department.”

He added, “No community can be safe and be effective for all people without strong relationships between both the police and the community and that’s what we really want to make sure happens from this incident.”

As there is nothing that these children can do to prevent further situations like this one from occurring, hopefully, this situation teaches police to use a little more discretion next time the profile a group of children. However, judging from their response — claiming they’re ‘just doing our job’ — that is highly unlikely.

‘Don’t Shoot Me’: Video Shows Cops Hold 5 Innocent Children at Gunpoint for Playing Basketball

Grand Rapids, MI — Outraged community leaders in Grand Rapids are demanding reform after five African American youths aged between 12 and 14 years were held at gunpoint — for no justifiable reason — as they walked home from playing basketball. Pressure on the department by The Grand Rapids Press through a Freedom of Information Act request finally forced them to release the body camera footage which is nothing short of horrifying. 

As the Free Thought Project reported last week, original video of the incident, taken from far away, shows a number of Grand Rapids Police Department patrol cars descended on the scene, as officers point loaded weapons at the youths, order them to the ground, and eventually place them each in handcuffs — after a vague call to dispatch suggested a large fight in the area, and the possibility a teen was in possession of a gun. 

None of the young teens in question were armed.

“Now they’re saying they don’t like the police,” Ikeshia Quinn, mother of two of the teens, told WOOD-TV — intimating the boys did not feel ambivalent toward law enforcement until this traumatic incident. “They don’t want to be involved with the police. They should’ve been approached differently because they are young boys. They had basketballs in their hands.”

As the body camera footage begins, Officer Caleb Johnson pulls up to the boys and immediately points his weapon at them and demands they get on the ground.

“Get on the ground!” Johnson tells the boys.

Three of the children were so confused that they did not immediately comply. Luckily they weren’t shot.

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“Hey, get over here,” Johnson said, motioning with his arm. “Keep your hands where I can see them and get on the ground.”

“Can you please put the gun down?” one of the boys asked.

Another youth is heard saying, “I do not want to die, bro.”

“We are not about to die we didn’t do nothing,” another of the boys says to try and comfort him.

“Don’t shoot me,” one of the boys pleads with the officers.

The entire time, the boys are trying to explain to the police that they were not involved in any of this mess and they have the video to prove it.

“Calm down, calm down, it’ll be alright,” Officer Johnson says as he has his finger on the trigger of his police issued pistol as its trained on the boys. “They’ll give you directions, OK?”

As more officers arrived, the boys were instructed to stand up, put their hands on their heads, and walk backward slowly toward the car. They were then all placed in handcuffs while officers figured out they were assaulted with deadly weapons for the sole act of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

After being wrongly detained for 10 minutes, the officers then called the boys’ parents to come pick them up. When the parents got there, naturally they were shaken up and furious to find out their children had been held at gunpoint because police mistook them for criminals.

“I’m sorry, I don’t mean no disrespect, but you all have to understand that’s my baby,” said Shawndryka Moore, mother of one of the boys, crying as she stood outside of the police cruiser with her son inside, as reported by mLive. “We don’t deal with police. I don’t have charges. We don’t do this. All this stuff that goes on in this world – I worry about my kids every day. That’s why I don’t let them go nowhere.”

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“We hate that it had to get to that point,” officer Troy Colegrove said. “We’re just doing our job because a lot of people out here have guns. We’re not saying that your kids have guns – we’re just doing our job,” Colegrove reiterated to the mother of an innocent child he just held at gunpoint.

Sadly, Colegrove is right. They were just doing their jobs — which requires the utmost attention to officer safety while acting in careless disregard for the citizens, even if they are children.

Although Grand Rapids Police Chief David Rahinsky and Mayor Rosalynn Bliss have since apologized for officers’ handling of the situation, fallout from the March 24 incident continues.

“The officers didn’t do anything wrong. They acted on articulate facts from a witness moments earlier who said he saw them hand a gun to each other,” Rahinsky said previously to The Press. “I think when the community sees what we’ve seen — with the body worn camera footage; I think they’ll have a different opinion. I respect their emotion. I think what we’re hearing is a lot of grief and frustration to systemic issues.”

A statement released by local police union leaders further exacerbated tensions between community leaders — who feel that if this incident represents standard protocol, change is imperative — and officers who see nothing of concern.

Local NAACP president Cle Jackson told local NBC News affiliate, WOOD-TV, “If this is protocol, in terms of how you detain and treat teens and youth, then there probably needs to be a change in that protocol.”

As mLive reports, this week the city announced results of a racial profiling traffic stop study showing bias in the police department who follows that very ‘protocol.’ Black drivers are twice as likely to be stopped by police in Grand Rapids than non-black drivers, according to a study done of 2013-2015 data.

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“The issue is not about having bad police officers,” LINC UP executive director Jeremy DeRoo explained. “The issue is there’s a protocol in place that is causing significant damage to the relationship between the people and the police department.”

He added, “No community can be safe and be effective for all people without strong relationships between both the police and the community and that’s what we really want to make sure happens from this incident.”

As there is nothing that these children can do to prevent further situations like this one from occurring, hopefully, this situation teaches police to use a little more discretion next time the profile a group of children. However, judging from their response — claiming they’re ‘just doing our job’ — that is highly unlikely.