In December 2019, Jessica Long feared her 16-year-old son was spiraling into a mental health crisis, drove him to a Lincolnton hospital and asked security officers to help get the defiant youth inside.
Instead, Long says in a new federal lawsuit, her son was tasered, beaten and body slammed by both hospital personnel and Lincoln County Sheriff s deputies, and left bleeding and handcuffed outside the building where he had been taken to get care.
The officers violent response is captured in full on a 45-minute surveillance video taken outside of Atrium Health Lincoln just after midnight on Dec. 8, 2019. At one point, the footage shows the handcuffed teen, identified in the lawsuit as John Doe, sitting on a blood-stained curb when he is punched in the face by one of the deputies who had responded to a 911 call.
U.S. Attorneyâs Office: No charges for Lincoln Co. deputy who punched handcuffed teen outside hospital
No charges for Lincoln County deputy By Nick Ochsner | January 21, 2021 at 1:46 PM EST - Updated January 21 at 11:32 PM
LINCOLNTON, N.C. (WBTV) â The U.S. Attorneyâs Office has closed its investigation into the Lincoln Co. Sheriffâs Office and will not bring charges in the case of a deputy punching a teenager in the face while his hands were cuffed behind his back.
This stems from an incident on Dec. 19 2019 when Atrium security guards tackled 16-year-old Hayden Long to the ground, tazed him and sat on him. When LCSO deputies showed up, one punched Long in the face.
Mother sues after her son, 16, is tasered, beaten and body-slammed by hospital security guards as he suffered a mental health episode
Jessica Long has filed a lawsuit, accusing hospital security guards and North Carolina sheriff s deputies of using excessive force against her teenage son
Long took the 16-year-old boy to Atrium Health Lincoln in Lincolton in December 2019 during a mental health crisis
Surveillance video from the hospital shows hospital security staff and sheriff s deputies knocking the teen to the ground and punching him
While handcuffed on the sidewalk, the boy spits blood in the face of a deputy, prompting him to hit him in the face