DETROIT – The family of an 11-year-old Detroit boy is outraged over Detroit police handcuffing the boy and taking him in for questioning about a neighborhood burglary.
Krystal Williams says police came to her home Sunday to talk with her son, Taiye Nelson because another boy had allegedly said Taiye helped him steal a TV from a house overnight.
Williams said she knows her son was home with her all night long.
"Because my daughter, she's eleven months, she has asthma real bad, so we were up all night giving her breathing treatment. I even woke him up, because he fell asleep on the couch and we were looking for her medicine, so I know he was at home," Williams said.
The family's attorney said police manhandled the boy, placing him in handcuffs and putting him in the back of a squad car as he called for his mother.
Tiaye was questioned and spent the night in a juvenile detention center, before being released the next day, when charges were dropped because of lack of evidence.
The family's attorney claims police had no right to take the boy into custody.
The Detroit police department released a statement on the matter.
In part, it reads: "During the time of the investigation, Officer's had mitigating evidence which lead them to believe that the two juveniles were in fact responsible for this home invasion. This gave the Officer's probable cause to detainee both youths in connection with this crime."
The department says officers acted in accordance with the law as well as department procedure