The family of a Fairfield High School student who was struck multiple times by a police officer last month announced Monday that they are filing a claim against the city of Fairfield, alleging excessive force and civil rights violations.
The family has retained attorney Ben Nisenbaum, who is a partner with Burris, Nisenbaum and Curry, an Oakland law firm that has represented numerous people involved in civil rights abuses by law enforcement.
“Everything is different now,” said 16-year-old Maurice Williams at a Monday news conference held in Oakland by Nisenbaum and the family. “I can’t go outside without worrying.”
Williams’ stepmother, SeQuoia Watley, said Williams has not been back at school since the May 20 encounter with police.
According to Watley, Williams is deeply traumatized and has been covering his face when he leaves the house and is considering cutting his hair.
“As a Black man, you’re already targeted in America,” said Berry Accius, a community advocate from Voice of the Youth, at the news conference.
Burris drew parallels to the highly publicized 1991 beating of Rodney King, a Black man arrested by Los Angeles Police after a high-speed chase.
Viral footage shows incident
The police encounter that triggered the excessive force claim happened about 12:30 p.m. on May 20. Fairfield police officers were called to the school as backup for on-duty School Resource Officer James Lewis following a lunchtime fight between two boys, including Williams.
In now-viral videos, cell phone footage shows Officer Bianca Camacho running up to Williams after the fight. In the videos, she yanks him by his dreadlocks then pins him down with her knee in his back and side, forcing his head to the ground.
She can be seen in cell phone and body-worn camera footage punching Williams in the head at least seven times with a closed fist.
Camacho was filmed by Williams’ stepmother, SeQuoia Watley, shortly after the encounter, stating on camera: “I did, I punched him in the face, yes, I did. Yeah, I punched him.”
“There is a serious question about the Fairfield Police Department training and policy standards, especially when they initially dismissed Officer Camacho’s head strikes as ‘distraction blows’,” Nisenbaum said.
Campus Resource Monitor Will Bible said May 22 that the fight never escalated from verbal to physical, and that additional police were not necessary.
The Fairfield Police Department said that Camacho had been reassigned, and an outside agency would investigate the incident. The Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District announced it is also conducting an investigation.
“We just want justice for Maurice,” said Williams’ father, Will Williams Jr. “We just want justice for Maurice.”