Screenshot courtesy of 6abc
The city of Philadelphia reached a $2 million settlement with Rickia Young, a mother who was pulled from her vehicle and beaten by Philadelphia Police officers last October.
Young was headed home with her 2-year-old son and her nephew on October 27, 2020, when she accidentally drove into a protest for the killing of Walter Wallace, per NBC News. Her lawyers said she tried to do a three-point turn to leave but her car was swarmed by several Philadelphia Police officers.
The officers smashed the windows with batons and pulled Young and her nephew from the car. They were both beaten while another office took her toddler to a police cruiser. The hearing-impaired baby lost his hearing aids during the incident. Young’s legal team claims she was separated from both boys for several hours.
“I will never forget what those officers did to us that night,” Young said during a news conference on Tuesday. “I hope that the officers responsible will never have the chance to do something like this to another person ever again.”
Two Philadelphia Police officers, Sgt. David Chisholm and Officer Darren Kardos, were fired in May for their conduct during the incident, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. Chisholm violated several policies including use of force, inappropriate communications or conduct on duty and lying or attempting to deceive during a departmental investigation.
Kardos was canned for excessive use of force and physical abuse with a baton. Fifteen more officers are facing disciplinary action related to the incident.
“Instead of fighting crime and the fear of crime, some of the officers on the scene created an environment that terrorized Rickia Young, her family, and other members of the public,” Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said in a statement to The Inquirer.
Last week, Young filed a lawsuit against the National Fraternal Order of Police for posting a picture of her son on Facebook two days after the assault. The photo’s caption claimed the toddler was found alone during the chaos of the Wallace protests. It was eventually deleted.
“This child was lost during the violent riots in Philadelphia, wandering around barefoot in an area that was experiencing complete lawlessness,” the post said. “The only thing this Philadelphia Police Officer cared about in that moment was protecting this child.”
The post is an added layer of pain for Young.
“The pain of seeing those images of my son in the arms of an officer and a horrible caption written to describe that picture may never heal,” Young said on Tuesday.