The FBI announced Monday that they are investigating allegations of excessive force by Independence Police after a Missouri teen who was Tasered was put in a coma.
Bryce Masters, 17, was reportedly driving to a friend's house to play video games when an officer pulled him over on Sunday.
Witnesses claimed the officer shocked the teen with a Taser, then pulled him from the car and handcuffed him. He was allowed to fall and hit his face on the pavement.
In partial video of the incident taken by witness Michelle Baker, the officer drags the boy onto the sidewalk and places his foot on his back.
"You could tell the kid was going into convulsions," Baker told Fox4kc.com.
Masters, whose father is a Kansas City Police officer, was put in a medically induced coma after sustaining brain injuries, family members told KCTV.
The officer in the incident, Tim Runnels, has been placed on administrative leave. The Independence police officer maintains his version of events, saying that non-lethal force was justified. A spokesman said that there was a warrant out for the car and that the driver didn't roll down his windows when ordered to do so by Runnels.
"During the course of the stop the driver became uncooperative, physically resistitive [sic] to exiting the car, and an altercation ensued leading the officer to deploying his Taser," Independence police Major Paul Thurman told KCTV.
Witnesses said they heard Masters tell Runnels that the window couldn't be rolled down.
"I hear[d] him say... 'I can't roll down my window [because] it's broke,'" Curtis Martes, Masters' friend who witnessed the incident from his porch, told Fox4kc.com.
Runnels has been with the Independence Police for three years.
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