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Hartford Police Stun Teen With Taser

A mother is calling for justice after police shot her son with a Taser in what she calls an “excessive use of force.” FOX CT obtained surveillance video and cel...

A mother is calling for justice after police shot her son with a Taser in what she calls an “excessive use of force.”

FOX CT obtained surveillance video and cell phone footage of the confrontation. In the surveillance video, a Hartford Police officer is seen walking toward 18-year-old Luis Anglero Jr., who is on the far left side of the screen by a fence.

Anglero walks toward the officer and then appears to stop suddenly and put his arms to his sides. Then the officer takes a few more steps forward before firing his Taser at Anglero, who immediately falls to the ground.

The incident unfolded just after 1 p.m. in Hartford’s North End, near the corner of Garden Street and Albany Avenue.

Anglero’s mother and sisters watched in horror as he hit his head on the sidewalk and then writhed on the ground.

"[The officer] told my brother, if you move up more I'm going to tase you, so my brother he went like this, he went like this, he was standing like this and then the guy just shot him for no reason with the tase,” said Nautigo Negron, Anglero’s sister.

Anglero’s mother says he was initially trying to help his sister, who was involved in a completely unrelated fight near the corner mini market. He was running to help his sister, and admitted he was looking for the man who allegedly hit her.

Before Anglero could get anywhere near the scene of the fight, which had already been stopped, the officer told him to stop and then struck him with the Taser.

A friend recorded cell phone video of the aftermath.

"This man could have just stopped and went like that and my son would have stopped. You took that out for no reason, you just wanted to shoot him for no reason,” said MaryAnn Yearwood, Anglero’s mother.

Anglero's mother also said her son is still being treated in the hospital.

"The hospital wants to keep him over night because his seizing won't stop. My son is barely 140 pounds. For him to hit my son with all that and keep his hand on it intentionally, I think he was trying to kill my son,” said Yearwood.

Deputy Chief Brian Foley of the Hartford Police Department says Anglero is under arrest, but didn’t say what charges he is facing. FOX CT offered to show both the surveillance and cell phone videos to Foley, but he chose not to watch, saying that the didn’t want to risk being accused of trying to influence the final police report.
"The supervisor told him not to go any further, he could clearly see that he was an agitator, I guess he took his shirt off at that point and disregarded the orders of the supervisor and continued toward the scene where there was quite a disturbance,” said Foley.
He added that the officer only used one pre-programmed five-second burst from the Taser on Anglero and that the incident will undergo a thorough review process.
"If they have a claim of excessive force we'd be happy to listen to them. We have a system of checks and balances in place right now and if they feel that way, we encourage them to come forward,” said Foley.
Anglero’s mother, MaryAnn, said she won’t rest until the officer who shot at her son is fired or disciplined by the department.
The family says they were unable to get the full name or badge number of the officer who fired the Taser, and police did not disclose his name Tuesday night.
Police did say FOX CT can (as always) obtain the police report and a specific report about the details of the taser firing once those documents are available.

Warning: the videos below are graphic and may be disturbing to some viewers.

Related links:

http://foxct.com/2014/08/19/hartford-police-stun-teen-with-taser/

http://foxct.com/2014/08/20/charges-for-hartford-teen-shot-with-taser-released/

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