Black teenager injured while arrested with father on charity bike ride

'My 13-year-old son and I were randomly stopped at Taser point by angry aggressive police officers who did not appear to be in full uniform,' says father

A still image taken from a video of the incident (Louise Paton)

A man has accused the police of “humiliating institutional racism” after he and his teenage son experienced an “aggressive” arrest at Taser-point in north London.

Andrew Boateng and his 13-year-old son Huugo were cycling along the River Lea for a charity bike ride in Tottenham when, Mr Boateng said, a police officer grabbed hold of the boy and shouted at him before threatening him with a stun gun.

Huugo suffered scratches to his face and bruised legs after he fled into thorny shrubbery during the arrest, his father said in an Instagram post.

The boy was then placed in handcuffs while his father caught up with him. Mr Boateng was then also handcuffed, he said.

The Metropolitan Police said Mr Boateng, of Tottenham, had been detained and then released following a stabbing in the area. Senior officers have now visited the family at home to discuss the arrest and Detective Chief Superintendent Treena Fleming, head of the Metropolitan Police’s north area command unit, said she was “keen to maximise any learning that comes from this”.

“The glaring example of humiliating institutional racism my young child and myself were subjected to in public yesterday evening while out on a charity bike ride challenge #spinoffat3 was something I thought (naively) that my children would not have to experience to such an extreme extent and at first hand as innocent law-abiding citizens,” Mr Boateng, who works at City University, said in an Instagram post.

Some of the officers did not appear to be wearing full uniform, Mr Boateng said, adding that they had been ”angry and aggressive”.

“My young son panicked as [he has] never seen a police officer of this sort in this capacity, and ended up being chased with a Taser weapon drawn through thorny rose bushes which tore up his face and his new clothes,” Mr Boateng said in his Instagram post. “I fear that our children are being exposed to dangerous levels of excessive force disproportionate to the scenario.”

Mr Boateng coaches a youth football team and also volunteers for an outreach scheme called KickOff@3, which is run by serving Metropolitan Police officer called Michael Wallace, according to the Observer, which first reported the story.

Huugo Boateng told the paper that during the arrest “this man came out of nowhere. He was crazy angry and shouting”. He added: “I got scared because I thought he might be mugging me or trying to give me corona so I ran, but there was nowhere to go but in the bushes.”

A Metropolitan Police spokesperson told The Independent that officers had been searching for a suspect in a stabbing at nearby Markfield recreation ground in Crowland Road.

The spokesperson added: “Officers attended and a 21-year-old man was taken to hospital. He was later discharged. Following the stabbing, a description of possible suspects were circulated to officers. Officers were searching for a suspect believed to be armed with a knife.

“During the course of the search, a 43-year-old male was detained for the purposes of a search. A 13-year-old male was arrested on suspicion of being involved with the stabbing. It was established they were not involved. The 13-year-old was de-arrested at the scene.

"The Met has received a complaint from a member of the public in relation to this incident. The Met takes all complaints seriously and this will be thoroughly investigated.”

Ms Fleming, the area commander, added in a statement: “In the hours following the incident one of my senior leadership team spoke with the parties involved to offer a personal explanation about the situation and to listen to and understand their concerns.

“Following that, two senior officers have visited the individuals concerned to speak with them so we can learn from this particular incident. We are keen to maximise any learning that comes from this.”