Sheriff Pins 12-year-old African American to Ground with Knee on Neck; College Student Shot with Rubber Bullet, Thrown to Ground & Wrist Shattered Fleeing Police Attack on Protestors (Press Release)

Sheriff Pins 12-year-old African American to Ground with Knee on Neck

Portland law firm Kafoury & McDougal today filed two police brutality cases.

12-year-old Ka’Mar Benbo was arrested at Clackamas Town Center by Clackamas County Sheriffs. The sheriffs were responding to a call that some teenage girls had been involved in a fight. As he was leaving the mall with some friends, he was grabbed and taken to the ground by several deputies. A photograph from a bystander shows several deputies on top of the child, with one of the deputies putting his weight on Ka’Mar’s neck with his knee. The child had trouble breathing, but managed to tell the officers several times he was only twelve years old. This had no apparent effect. No charges were filed. Clackamas County Sheriff’s department ruled that the officers’ conduct was well within policy and exonerated the officers.

“What the world is seeing now, is what African-Americans have always known. It didn’t start with a knee to the neck of George Floyd. The police here were aggressive and abusive to a 12 year old child. If there is ever to be police reform, the time is now,” said attorney Jason Kafoury.

College Student Shot with Rubber Bullet, Thrown to Ground & Wrist Shattered Fleeing Police Attack on PROTESTERS

Around midnight on Friday, June 5/6, Dominique Bouchard, a 27-year-old college student, was leaving the scene near the Justice Center after the police had declared that the crowd was an unlawful assembly, and issued threats to use less-lethal weaponry on the crowd. The police then opened up with flashbang grenades, rubber bullets, and teargas, then began running toward the fleeing demonstrators, swinging clubs.

In the second lawsuit filed today in Multnomah County, Ms. Bouchard was shot in the vicinity of SW 4th and 5th in the back of the thigh with a rubber bullet as she fled the scene, and then about a block later was body-slammed to the ground by a Portland police officer, who made no attempts to detain her. She suffered a fractured wrist when she hit the pavement, and has had to undergo surgery for implantation of metal hardware.

The office of Kafoury & McDougal is highly interested in getting any video of this event, as well as getting in touch with any witnesses who may have seen our client being injured.

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