Video: When a Teen Grabbed for a Cop's Baton, the Officer Threw a Punch for 'Weapon Retention

A California teenager was hit by a Stockton police officer when he grabbed the cop's baton in an incident that apparently started with jaywalking and ignoring the officer's orders.

Video shows the teen, after being hit, holding his face and continuing to resist the officer's verbal and physical orders to turn around.

About a minute into the video, more officers arrived as a woman continued to shout "that is a f***ing child!"

With over a half of a dozen officers now on the scene, they physically forced the teen to stand and then brought him down to the sidewalk to handcuff him.

Image source: YouTube

"That is a child! That is a kid! What's wrong with y'all?" a woman screamed.

After the teen was handcuffed, he was lifted to his feet and ushered to a police cruiser.

Watch the footage (Content warning: strong language):

Here's more background on the situation, according to Edgar Avendano who says he filmed the video:

The kid got stopped for "jaywalking" when he barely stepped out of the bus he was 2 feet away from the sidewalk when the cop stopped him for "jaywalking". The cop was telling him to take a sit but the teen kept walking to his bus but the cop kept grabbing his arm & the kid took off the cop's hand off his arm so the cop took out his baton & that's when I started recording because everything happened too quick. He didn't have to hit the kid with the baton & no need to call about 20 cops. And as you can see his body cam is on the floor.

Stockton Police Department spokesman Joseph Silva told KPIX-TV that the 16-year-old was indeed walking in the bus lane, a violation of the city code, and he ignored an officer's order to get out of the lane. Silva told the news station the teen allegedly used foul language and so the incident that was caught on camera began:

When the officer went to detain him, Silva said a scuffle ensued and the officer’s body camera was knocked off in the process. The fight escalated when the boy grabbed the officer’s baton at which point the officer responded with force for “weapon retention” purposes, according to Silva.

Silva told KPIX officers would not resort to the use of force if "people would just comply with lawful orders from law enforcement and not grab our weapons." Silva said the department is conducting an investigation into the situation, but told the news station that current evidence suggests the officer was not out of policy in his actions.

The teen, KPIX reported, received citations for trespassing and resisting arrest.

Comments on the video, which was also posted to Facebook, range from people pointing out that there is more to the story than the video shows to criticism of police brutality to disbelief that "tax payers paid more than 10 officers, administrative costs, and court costs to detain, process a kid who supposedly jaywalked."