The family of a 10-year-old Black boy who was arrested and placed in a cell for relieving himself in a parking lot say they will file a federal civil rights lawsuit against a Mississippi city unless police officers involved in the detention are fired.
Quantavious Eason was detained and taken to a police station in Senatobia after an officer spotted him urinating behind a car outside a law office last month while his mother was inside getting advice on a housing issue.
LaToya Eason questioned if her son’s race influenced officers’ decision to take him away in a police car and place him in a cell for almost an hour. “Would you have put a white child in a cage? If it had been a white child, he probably wouldn’t have even been stopped,” she told a news conference this week.
She said the boy had seen a sign saying there were no toilets for public use inside the law office, but he desperately needed to go.
Richard Chandler, the Senatobia police chief, acknowledged at the time that mistakes were made, and announced in a statement that one of the officers was no longer employed by the department. Others, he said, “will be disciplined”.
“The officer’s decisions violated our written policy and went against our prior training on how to deal with these situations,” he said.
The boy, however, is still facing legal action in Tate county for being “a child in need of supervision”, charges usually brought when a minor is considered “habitually disobedient” or ungovernable.
The family’s lawyer, Carlos Moore, on Thursday threatened to file a federal lawsuit “come hell or high water” unless the charge was dropped. He also demanded that the officer who detained the boy be named and fired instead of being allowed to resign – as well as for a financial settlement to be reached with the city.
“They had him put his hands behind his back and they put him in a patrol car and took him to downtown Senatobia, and he called it a cage,” Moore told the news conference at the Tate county courthouse.
“They put this boy in a cage for relieving himself. We will give Senatobia two weeks to come to this family and settle this pre-litigation, otherwise the federal lawsuit will be filed and we will get this family justice, come hell or high water.”
The Guardian has reached out to the city of Senatobia and its police department for comment. Neither responded to questions by local media.
In an earlier statement, Chandler said the boy was not handcuffed at any stage. But he conceded that protocol was not followed, and he said all department members would receive training in dealing with juveniles.
“It was an error in judgment for us to transport the child to the police station since the mother was present at that time as a reasonable alternative,” he said.
“Mistakes like this are a reminder in this profession as to the continual need for training and refreshers on the various topics that we encounter each day.”
