CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WJZY) – A North Carolina mother says her 12-year-old son is traumatized after police handcuffed him and took him to jail.
The boy was charged with reckless driving while riding his bicycle last weekend in Charlotte.
A bystander recorded a video of Prince Ervin in handcuffs in the back of a CMPD car on Sunday. The footage captures onlookers questioning the officers about the situation.
“What crime did he commit?” a man asked.
“Reckless driving,” an officer responded.
“Reckless driving on a bicycle,” the man said. “Did he hit a car?”
“Doesn’t have to hit a car,” the officer said.
Prince’s mom, Jasmine Ervin, says she picked her son up at the jail after a panicked call from one of his friends.
“Terrified, traumatized: that’s how he feels,” Jasmine Ervin said. “He shouldn’t have to [feel that].”
Prince says he was riding his bike with a group of more than 50 people of all ages.
He noticed a police car trailing them for a few blocks. Prince says the lights flipped on, and a chase began.
“He hit my friend’s bike from behind,” Prince explained. “It seemed like he tried to knock him off. I didn’t want to stick around and risk the same thing happening to me.”
Once alone, Prince said officers caught up to him when he blew a tire.
“When I was putting my hands behind my back, I was on the ground, so when they were picking me up, they were still manhandling me,” Prince said.
Jasmine Ervin says the experience has taken away her child’s innocence.
“You want to feel safe and protected,” she expressed. “When a big man is pursuing you in a car, and you’re just a child on a bike, what do you expect from him after he’s already hit one of your friends?”
Information on the case is limited because Prince is a minor, but Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police released a statement:
Officers took actions to ensure the individual in the video was safe, in accordance with the conditions observed at the scene. The Central Division often addresses reports of individuals riding bicycles recklessly, posing a threat to themselves or others on city streets.
This incident follows a city crackdown three years ago on large groups of young bicyclists, some of whom were accused of dangerous behavior and occasionally assaulting drivers.
Prince and his mother say Sunday’s incident was not related to any “gang,” and he was just out for a ride.
Prince hasn’t gotten his bike back, but in a remarkable act of kindness, the man who recorded the arrest bought Prince a new one.
Ervin and her son are both grateful.
“He’s a child,” Jasmine Ervin asserted. “He’s a young Black boy. He is mine, he is important, and people need to recognize that. They won’t treat my son inappropriately because that’s not acceptable. He’s not an animal.”
CMPD says the case is an active investigation. Ervin says she spoke with CMPD’s Internal Affairs Department on Thursday.
