Macon police officers arrest two teenagers, allegedly hit woman with cruiser
Cristen Drummond
Story Created:
Sep 30, 2012 at 11:19 PM EDT
Story Updated:
Oct 2, 2012 at 9:17 PM EDT
People living in a Macon neighborhood are still searching for answers after they say an incident with police on Saturday ended with two teens being unjustly arrested and a 53-year-old woman being hit by a police cruiser.
It started at a gazebo down the road from Churchill Street. According to Macon Police spokesperson, Jami Gaudet, an officer chased and arrested two underage suspects for possession of marijuana. However, Dre-quan Taylor, 16, who was arrested, said that’s not the case.
"The other boy was smoking cigarettes but we weren't smoking marijuana," Taylor said.
Taylor said he and four friends were sitting at the gazebo. An officer approached them because Rashaad Jones, 15, was smoking a cigarette. Taylor said the officer told the teens to leave the area. Taylor rode away on his bicycle but said he ran into another officer on Churchill Street.
"I came in the road and I saw the other police sitting in the road,” Taylor said. “He came up to me. So I turned back around. I left and then the other police came, he started swerving behind me."
Taylor said that’s when he got scared and decided to run.
"He was speeding up behind me to fast,” Taylor said. “So then I hopped off the bike and I just dropped the bike. Than he ran over the bike, then he got out of the car and I ran into somebody's yard so that everyone could see what he was going to do to me…He throw the stick (police baton) at me and try to hit me with the stick but he missed and then when he pulled out his gun, he told me to get on the ground and I just got on the ground."
The officer arrested Taylor and a few minutes later his friend, James Watson, 16, who was shooting cell phone video of Taylor's arrest. Taylor said police confiscated the cell phone.
According to the police release, both boys were apprehended for possession of marijuana.
However, Taylor said on Sunday that he was not charged with possession of marijuana, but instead Obstruction of Officers. Taylor said he was serviced with another charge on Sunday, Theft by Receiving Stolen Property.
When the officer was leaving with both boys in the cruiser, neighbor Mary Ann Mike said she was hit while holding her 3-year-old granddaughter, Joydan Lawson's hand.
"He saw me he looked dead in my face,” Mike said. “I just turned and walking (from) where I was from, and the way his car turned slanted and when he hit the gas, he knew he was going to get a part of my body, he knew that, he hit me dead on my side."
However, a release from the Macon Police Department said, “the investigator found no damage to the police car indicating that the vehicle struck anyone.”
It continued to say the woman refused to be treated by paramedics at the scene and that the juvenile with the bicycle told an investigator that the officer did not strike his bicycle. However, Taylor said police confiscated his bicycle after the arrest and Mike said she went to the Coliseum Medical Center for treatment.
Internal Affairs came to the scene as part of standard procedures to investigate. The incident is still under investigation.
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