On Tuesday night, 15-year-old Joey said he couldn’t believe he wasn’t also placed in cuffs.
“I knew it was wrong, and I knew there was gonna be problems when they did that,” he said. “They didn’t go for me.”
Joey’s friend, Sienna Freidinger, filmed the video. She said the officers’ responses weren’t fair.
“The Black kid was the only one who was getting tackled, and both officers, like, laid on him,” she said. “Joey could have gotten up and walked away.”
Her mother, Alicia, said she was horrified by the video her daughter recorded.
“I couldn’t believe that a mall fight turned into something like this,” she said. “I couldn’t believe that both of the police officers were on that young man — that Black young man — and nothing was done with the other young man.”
She added, “And it almost seemed to me that the white female officer was even saying to Joey, ‘Are you alright?'”