Akron Officer Accused of Breaking Schoolgirl's Arm

By Phil Trexler
Ohio.com
Jan. 07, 2013

A mother is challenging the school assignment of an Akron police officer accused of fracturing her daughter’s arm while physically restraining the eighth-grade girl.

The incident was recorded on a security camera at Jennings middle school. The video shows Officer Jon Morgan rushing 13-year-old Tamika Williams at a doorway and forcing the student backward across a hall and against a locker.

The officer then grabs the girl’s left arm and spins her around, raising the arm up toward her right shoulder. At one point, the girl appears to be lifted by the officer several inches off the ground while other students mill through the hallway.

Morgan appears to speak into the girl’s ear before escorting her by the arm to an assistant principal’s office. There is no sound to the video.

The student, who has since turned 14, is not charged with resisting arrest or any other crime related to the Oct. 26 incident.

[...][The family's attorney] characterized the incident as an “attack” and an “assault” by the officer against an overmatched, slightly built, 110-pound girl.

“He essentially bum-rushes her, pushes her against the locker, twists her arm behind her back and above her head and breaks her arm,” Sipplen said. “During the entire time, the officer is in control and she did not try to resist.

“There’s no justification for his attack on Tamika. Absolutely no justification at all. Had a regular person done this to a child, he would be charged with felonious assault.”

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