A police officer thought an autistic teen was on drugs — and held him on the ground, video shows

Newly-released body-camera footage shows an Arizona police officer holding a 14-year-old boy with autism on the ground because the cop thought he was on drugs.

The incident happened in mid-July, when officer David Grossman of the Buckeye Police Department pushed Connor Leibel, 14, to the ground and held him there, according to ABC15.

In the video, Grossman is seen approaching Leibel, asking the boy what he is doing.

Leibel, holding a piece of string, said he is “stimming,” an abbreviation for self-stimulating activity that helps calm nerves, according to AZCentral. It’s a common term for those with autism.

The officer asks the teenager if he has an ID, to which Leibel said no.

Leibel tries to walk away, and that’s when the officer grabs him, putting his hands behind his back and eventually pushing him down on the ground.

The boy begins to scream, saying “I’m OK.”

Leibel’s family wanted an apology — but a spokesperson for the Buckeye Police Department said “the internal investigation found there was no use of force.”

Now, they’re angry.

“The family is anguished about what happened to Connor,” read a statement from the family released to ABC15. “It's astonishing that even after an internal investigation, the Buckeye Police Department claims it did absolutely nothing wrong.”

Grossman, officials at the police department said, is one of the top officers that trains police around Arizona in DUI and drug cases, according to ABC15.

He wrote in a police report that he thought the teen was using an inhalant drug. Leibel, left alone for a few minutes as his caregiver walked his sister to music lessons across the street, was flicking a string in front of his face.

"I observed some object in his right hand that he hit against his left palm,” he wrote, “and then immediately bring his hands up to his face in what appeared he was smelling something.”

The teen, who suffered abrasions on his back, eye and arm, was let go when his caretaker returned to the scene and told the officer that he is autistic, according to the AP.

The department said the officer was acting on reasonable suspicion but added that it will use the incident as learning experience.

“We will take any type of training from this incident or any other incident to learn from and better ourselves,” the department said in a statement.

Timothy Scott, a lawyer for Leibel’s family, said the teen is now afraid of police.

“One of the heartbreaking aspects of this story is that the family has always taught him to trust the police and to reach out to them if he needs help,” he said, according to AZCentral. “But today he is fearful of the police and that is something that is going to take a lot of hard work and treatment to overcome.”

He said the family wants three things.

“First, a personal apology from the officer; second, that the officer perform community service with the autistic community,” he said, “and third, that Buckeye institute a mandatory training program to prevent an incident like this from ever happening again.”

This story was originally published September 20, 2017 at 6:41 AM with the headline "A police officer thought an autistic teen was on drugs — and held him on the ground, video shows."