Worcester Cop Fired Taser At Teen Moments After He Arrived At Little League Brawl Scene

WORCESTER, MA — A Worcester police officer shot a Black 17-year-old with a Taser less than a minute after the teen arrived in the chaotic aftermath of a June fight involving two little league teams at Kendrick Field in the Greendale neighborhood, newly released body camera footage shows.

The bodycam videos offer new views of an incident that had been detailed in a June Worcester police news release as an officer using a Taser to stop a 17-year-old with clenched fists from committing an "impending assault."

Worcester police last week released two bodycam videos of the June 12 incident under a public records request. The videos show police interviewed two men associated with the Kendrick Field-based Schwartz little league team who describe tackling someone. Both were allowed to leave the field after the incident. The 17-year-old, who is the brother of a player on the Vernon Hill Park-based Lou Gehrig team, was handcuffed and later charged with disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace and assault after the officer shot him with the Taser.

Worcester Patch reached out to both little league teams for comment about the altercation. We will update this story if either team responds.

The heavily redacted videos show the 30 minutes surrounding the Taser deployment. Police arrived at Kendrick Field along Brooks Street after fighting between the two teams had ceased. The videos show the incident from the perspectives of two officers, including the one who fired the Taser.

One video begins with an officer interviewing two men, who are both white. One of the men describes being approached by the Lou Gehrig team's coach, who they say pointed his finger and then raised his fist at them. One man says he decided to tackle the coach when he saw him raise his fist.

"That's when I tackled him. I just tackled him, I didn't hit him," the man says as the officer points out that tackling is hitting.

A man identified as the Lou Gehrig coach is shown in the video receiving medical attention from an ambulance. Another member of the Lou Gehrig team — the 15-year-old brother of the teen who would end up being shot with the Taser — also appears in the video, and says he was hit by someone associated with the Schwartz team. The teen tells police the adult who hit him may have changed his clothes and left the field.

About 14 minutes into the videos, the parents of the 15-year-old arrive at the field and begin demanding to know where the person who hit their son is. From between the parents, the 17-year-old brother emerges and runs a short distance across a parking lot onto the baseball field where a few people associated with the Schwartz team were standing. The teen runs in a circle around the field as police chase him. An officer can be seen attempting to grab the 17-year-old from behind.

A moment later, the 17-year-old gets trapped between three officers. The officer who attempted to grab the teen then pulls out his Taser and fires the weapon.

"Back up. You're going to get Tased," the officer says at almost the same time he fires the weapon.

About 30 second pass from when the teen sprinted out of the parking lot to him getting stunned.

The videos show the teen crumpling to the ground as his parents rush onto the field and begin shouting at police. The teen's entire body is blurred in the video, making it unclear what he was doing before the officer fired the Taser.

"He reacts to his brother being punched and he gets tased?" the father says in the video after running toward his son.

A woman in the video who says she's the 17-year-old's mother asks police if they used the Taser because the teen is Black.

"This is how you guys kill people!" she yells at the officers, adding her son has mental health problems.

After getting shot with the Taser, the 17-year-old apologizes several times to the officer who shot him, saying he "blacked out" because he was upset someone hit his brother.

Video from the perspective of the officer who used the Taser:

Video from the perspective of another officer at the scene:

A Schwartz coach named Jim Kelly can be seen in one video talking to an officer about bad blood between the teams. Kelly says Gehrig parents threatened to shoot the umpires at a game against Schwartz earlier in the season. Kelly told the officer the June 12 fight began when the two teams were lined up and shaking hands and a Gehrig player "shouldered" a Schwartz player.

"Next thing you know, as our kid walked by, he bumped him from behind," Kelly says. The interview with Kelly gets cut short by the 17-year-old running out onto the field.

The video also shows adults associated with the Schwartz team complaining to police that Gehrig players and parents were hanging around their cars. A man seen earlier in the video who was involved in the tackling of the Gehrig coach interrupts an officer while he's interviewing a witness to say the Gehrig coach made a threatening remark. The officer then begins telling people who don't need to be at the field to leave.

The June 13 Worcester police news release said the fight broke out between players and parents as the players were shaking hands at the end of the game. The release said one person was injured after getting tackled. The remainder of the description focused on the 17-year-old.

"An officer chased after the teen and repeatedly told him to stop. The officer placed himself between the teen and the other party to protect the group. The teen continually tried to get past the officer while clenching his fists. The officer tried to grab onto the teen but he escaped his grasp. As the situation escalated, the officer gave a warning that the teen would be Tased. The officer perceived that the teen was about to run past him to assault the group. Therefore, the officer deployed his Taser to stop the impending assault," the news release said.

The news release said a 22-year-old and a 45-year-old were charged with assault and battery by summons, which means they received a notice to appear in court at a later date. It's unclear if the 17-year-old was taken to detention that night or was allowed to leave with his parents.

Worcester police declined to answer questions about the status of the criminal cases and did not release the names of the adults who were charged, deferring instead to the Worcester County District Attorney's office. The DA's could not provide an update without the names of the two adults charged.

Worcester police began using bodycams in late February, an initiative that has in part been billed as a way to offer transparency into a department that is now under a U.S. Department of Justice probe over biased policing.

Worcester Patch requested bodycam videos from the incident on June 16. On July 3, the city requested payment of either $200 for 199 minutes of footage from four officers or two 30-minute videos for $25. The city said it could not release the videos without a legal review, which costs $25 per hour. The 60 minutes of footage was released on Aug. 3.

Worcester police spokesman Lt. Sean Murtha said all uses of "level 4" force — which includes the use of a Taser — are reviewed by department supervisors. The review of the Kendrick Field incident was completed the same day.

"Every incident involving a level 4 use of force, such as this incident, requires that the officer notify his or her immediate supervisor," Murtha said. "The supervisor will then be responsible for reviewing the officer’s video and reports. Upon completion, the same supervisor will notify the officer’s unit commander, who is also required to review the video. The Training Division, Bureau of Professional Standards, and Deputy Chief are also notified. "

Murtha said the officer's use of the Taser was ruled justified by the supervisor. The parents of the 17-year-old in the video can be heard saying they would file a complaint over the incident, but Murtha said no complaint had been filed as of Monday.

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