Newly released bodycam footage captured an officer from the Kenosha Police Department threatening to take the baby of a couple arrested at a Wisconsin Applebee’s to Child Protective Services.
Video obtained by the Milwaukee Sentinel Journal shows Officer Kevin Roepke threatening to take the couple’s 1-year-old baby to CPS after the child’s grandmother, Tekesisha Boyd, came to the restaurant to get the baby.
Boyd arrived after officers mistakenly identified Boyd’s daughter and Jermelle English Jr. as suspects in a hit-and-run car accident and then arrested the two when they objected to being physically detained.
“Who are you here with?” Roepke asked one of the family members on the scene. The man was instructed by Boyd not to talk to the police officers.
“Without you cooperating with me, I can’t give you this child,” Roepke said. After an angry Boyd said she would only speak to a sergeant, an irritated Roepke replied, “Then you don’t get the child. It can go to f—king services,” as he walked away.
“That’s f—ked up,” noted one bystander.
“We wanna talk to your boss,” said Boyd as Roepke replied, “You have a phone. Use it.”
Twenty-four-year-old English and 22-year-old Shayna Boyd were arrested on July 20 at the Applebee’s following a car crash near Highway 31 and Highway 50.
The police arrested the couple after falsely identifying them as suspects in the hit-and-run. When English tried to get up from his booth to take his baby to the bathroom to change his diaper, officers attempted to arrest him while he was holding his young son.
After a bystander grabbed the child, an officer was seen on video beating English while he was face-down. Boyd was pepper-sprayed by one of the officers.
One of the KPD officers received a four-day suspension for hitting English while another was suspended for ten for failing to “decontaminate” Boyd after he pepper-sprayed her.
As the…
Read the full article here
