A video posted online of a Bronx teen being beaten by police officers last week has led the young man's family members to raise questions about the officers' actions.
Jateik Reed, 19, was arrested on Thursday on charges of robbery, possession of marijuana and crack cocaine and assaulting a police officer on East 168th Street in University Heights.
The video shows Reed being pushed onto the ground and receiving multiple blows from batons, punches and kicks from officers.
According to the criminal complaint, after the arrest an officer needed stitches to close a cut on his nose.
However, family members said Reed received a lot worse.
"They refused to take him back to the hospital and they wouldn't give him no medicine or anything. He is sitting there telling me his head is hurting, he doesn't feel good," said Schuan Reed, Jateik's mother. "He has staples in his head, he has staples in his arm, his eyes were black, his whole entire back is black, blue, purple."
Reed's mother, brother and friend went to the local police precinct to ask about the arrest, and they were arrested as well. A criminal complaint says the family members attacked officers, but they deny that.
Jateik Reed's father, Bernard Walker, said the charges were trumped up by police in order to cover up the severity of the beating.
"This so-called assault on an officer, which we all know never took place. Even... if it had happened and if he hit this officer, no one ever saw that. And it still doesn't call for the abuse that they put on my son," said Walker.
Another friend who recorded Jateik Reed's arrest said he wanted to help but feared he would be beaten as well.
Who deserves to be beat like that? Obviously he was trying to put his hands behind his back," said the friend. "How is he going to put his hands behind his back if you keep beating him? He's trying to block his face."
"A sergeant was there allowing all of this abuse to take place in his presence," said Walker.
The Bronx district attorney and the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating the actions of the police officers.
Jateik Reed's family also hired a civil attorney and plans to sue the city, the New York City Police Department and all the officers involved in the recorded incident.
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