A Broward Sheriff’s Office deputy drove into a boy on a bicycle in Deerfield Beach before tackling him to the ground and arresting him, according to the Sheriff’s Office and a video that has gone viral over the last two days, leading to widespread backlash online.
A group of boys on bicycles had gathered in an intersection in Deerfield Beach late Monday afternoon, according to deputies and the video, which was posted on the local “Only in Broward” and “Only in Palm Beach” social media pages. A gray, unmarked Chevy SUV then turned abruptly towards a boy on a red bicycle, the footage shows, hitting him before stopping in the street.
As the boy limped away, attempting to get on his bicycle, a deputy in uniform and a mask exited the driver’s side door of the car and barreled towards him, grabbing him by his shirt. The boy then fell to the ground on the grass next to the street as the deputy fell on top of him, yanking at his arm.
“Stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!” the boy cried, according to the footage, as the deputy wrestled with him.
“Yo, what the f****,” said the boy filming the video, also on a bicycle.
By that point, three other marked Broward Sheriff’s Office patrol cars and one unmarked car had arrived, lights flashing. Multiple deputies walked next to the child as he limped, the footage shows.
The Broward Sheriff’s Office said deputies had been monitoring “a large crowd of juveniles riding bicycles recklessly and engaging in unlawful activity on their bikes throughout Hillsboro Boulevard in Deerfield Beach” a little after 3 p.m. The group was “conducting dangerous bicycle stunts, running red lights and blocking intersections which created significant traffic disruption, interrupted or impeded the flow of traffic and posed a danger to the cyclists and the public.”
A deputy’s unmarked vehicle then “made contact with one of the juvenile’s bicycles” as he was trying to “maneuver” around the other cyclists, according to the Sheriff’s Office. The boy was arrested, then taken to a nearby hospital as a precaution. He was later released with a Juvenile Civil Citation.
Other boys were also detained and received citations for violations including running red lights and not wearing helmets, the Sheriff’s Office said.
BSO did not identify the deputy, nor say how many boys were detained or what the boy who was struck by the car was cited with. The agency also did not provide the boy’s name or age.
A boy who said he was at the gathering when the incident took place wrote in a comment on the video that the boy who was arrested had hosted a “rideout,” or a gathering where kids ride bicycles and do stunts, before deputies arrived and started following them about 10 minutes in. Multiple social media posts also referenced the “rideout.” The group went into a local neighborhood as to not disrupt traffic, the boy said, but more deputies followed them and blocked them from leaving.
“then we went into into a scramble then more police grabbed some kids,” he wrote.
BSO said Monday’s event is part of “an ongoing, organized pattern of reckless behavior by groups of juvenile bicyclists that encourages and rewards dangerous stunts and activities in traffic on busy South Florida roads” and that the agency has received several complaints about the cyclists.
George Palaidis, a personal injury attorney who specializes in cyclist law and watched the video multiple times, described the use of a vehicle that size on a child as “deadly force.”
“It’s reasonable that it could cause serious injury or death in that situation,” he told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
Palaidis said he sometimes sees the groups of boys riding their bikes and doing stunts along State Road A1A or Las Olas Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale, annoying drivers. But that isn’t enough justification to hit someone with a car, he said, unless the boy was actively endangering others around him.
“You’ve got to be careful,” Palaidis said. “Even if kids are pissing off the officers, this is why police are trained in de-escalation.”
The boy who was hit and arrested did not comment when he was reached by the Sun Sentinel. Attempts to reach the boy who filmed the arrest were unsuccessful Tuesday afternoon.
Online, commenters were quick to criticize the deputy for the aggressive response with a child.
“Great job taking down a 12 year old,” one person wrote. “… the streets are safe!”
“Cops don’t catch drug dealers anymore, they arrest kids riding bikes,” wrote another.
Other commenters defended the deputy’s response, saying that the kids on bikes presented a danger to the public.
“these kids ride in the middle of the street with zero regard for any other CAR on the road,” one wrote.
“Finally,” another said. “These kids be a menace to the streets.”
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