SPANAWAY, Wash. — The family of an autistic Bethel High School student who a Pierce County sheriff’s deputy shot in the back with a stun gun has sued the deputy and the county.
Rory and Stacie Walley filed the lawsuit July 20 in U.S. District Court in Tacoma on behalf of their 14-year-old son, identified in the complaint as B.W.
They allege the deputy used excessive force against the teenager, who has since turned 15.
“The deviation from standard police practices in this case is extreme and suggests either a rogue officer or a complete lack of training in Taser use and dealing with people with disabilities,” said Nathan Roberts, one of the family’s attorneys.
“There’s just no reason for them to apply a Taser to this child, in these circumstances, and it shouldn’t have happened.”
The suit names Pierce County and sheriff’s Deputy David Sutherland, who has been with the department for 17 years.
“It appears to me that our deputy took extra time and extra care to both protect the other students and to use minimal force to control the situation,” Sheriff Paul Pastor said in a statement.
According to the suit, B.W. was in the Emotional Behavioral Disorder Program at Bethel High in Elk Plain when he became upset Sept. 28.
His teachers and parents had taught him to walk around when he was frustrated or upset, and that’s what he started doing after having a disagreement with a teacher, Roberts said.
Staff members tried to monitor B.W. at a distance, because he gets upset when he is followed, the attorney said.
Sutherland was called to the school to help with “an autistic student walking around the halls.” When he arrived, administrators told him B.W. was “autistic, tense, and that his parents were in route to the school,” the complaint says.
The narrative in the police report on the incident states the deputy also was told B.W. had pushed someone, almost knocking them to the ground.
The family alleges Sutherland called for backup without trying to talk with B.W., and that he and the other deputy who arrived “chased an autistic, scared, and emotionally disturbed B.W. throughout the school’s halls.”
The teen was unarmed and was not threatening anyone when, “without warning, Deputy Sutherland shot B.W. in the back with a taser, while B.W. was walking away,” the suit states.
B.W. suffered injuries to his face when he fell to the ground, and since the incident has extreme anxiety when he sees a police officer, the suit says.
The police report narrative says school security called Sutherland, because B.W. was running through the hallways, and staff members had been trying to de-escalate the situation for awhile without success.
Staff members told the deputy that B.W. had been on the go for about 45 minutes, was not listening to directions and had assaulted another student, the narrative says.
Suthlerland wrote in the narrative that B.W. hurried away several times when the deputy approached, and that the deputy feared B.W. might hurt someone.
He said he told B.W to stop, or he’d be tased. When the teen didn’t stop, Sutherland used the taser.