Michael Bernard was washing dishes inside his Michigan home when he asked his 12-year-son to take out the garbage two years ago.
But when Tashawn Bernard did not return after several minutes, the father became worried and stepped outside to look for his son, finding him in handcuffs surrounded by several Lansing police officers, accusing the boy of matching the description of another Black male suspected of stealing cars.
“You always use that as an excuse,” the agitated father was heard saying in direct confrontation with the officer insisting the teen “fit the description.”
However, the other Black male was an adult who happened to be wearing neon shorts like Tashawn Bernard but with a white T-shirt, according to a lawsuit filed last month in federal court, seeking damages for the trauma inflicted upon the boy. The boy was wearing a bluish-gray shirt.
“When it happened, I was really, like, shocked and frightened about like the situation, and how it happened,” Tashawn Bernard said in an interview that aired on “Good Morning America” less than a week after the incident.
According to the lawsuit obtained by Atlanta Black Star:
Tashawn has increasing difficulty interacting with police authority figures and is frightened by them when they are in his vicinity.
As a result of the incident, Tashawn has experienced panic/anxiety attacks, difficulty sleeping and required counseling to address residual symptoms from the trauma caused by Defendants.
The lawsuit filed by the Michigan-based law firm Grewal Law PLLC accuses the two officers who detained him of unreasonable search and seizure, false arrest, negligence, assault and battery and excessive force.
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