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Onondaga County officials responded to questions regarding a county sheriff’s deputy’s forceful arrest of a 15-year-old during a community police reform forum on Thursday.

Early on the morning of Nov. 11, a sheriff’s deputy pulled the minor, who is Black, out of a stopped vehicle while using profane and threatening language. The teenager had both hands raised when the deputy pulled him from the car. The sheriff continued to use profane language throughout the arrest, even as the minor apologized and pleaded with the deputy to stop.

A video of the incident, filmed on the minor’s phone, circulated on social media following the incident, accompanied by photos of the minor with bruises on his face and neck.

At Thursday’s virtual forum, Hasahn Bloodworth, an organizer with RebirthSYR, pressed county officials in attendance on whether the county had addressed the incident.

“That investigation is still ongoing, (and) we should have a conclusion to it soon,” said Joseph Ciciarelli, chief police deputy at the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office. “There’s a few things that still have to be tied up, but it will be discussed with the people who are involved with the case.”

The sheriff’s office has been investigating the incident since November.

County Executive Ryan McMahon also acknowledged that he had seen the video of the minor’s arrest, calling it “disturbing.”

McMahon said the county’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion had reached out to the minor’s family and that the county had “started a dialogue” with the sheriff’s office about the arrest. He later cautioned that, as county executive, he has only limited oversight of the Sheriff’s Office.

“The sheriff is a separate elected official, and the sheriff answers to (the voters) directly,” McMahon said. “He actually doesn’t answer to me at all except when I propose a budget.”

The minor’s arrest sparked a series of protests outside the sheriff’s office in November.

The forum on Thursday evening, hosted over Zoom, was part of a series conducted by the Onondaga County Police Reform and Reinventitive Collaboration. The collaboration was established as part of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Executive Order 203, a piece of police reform legislation passed in June in light of nationwide protests against police brutality following the killing of George Floyd.

Published on January 14, 2021 at 9:36 pm

Contact Chris: cjhippen@syr.edu