A Fallbrook sheriff's deputy used a Taser on a 13-year-old reported runaway after the two struggled on the ground and the teen bit the deputy's arm, Sheriff Bill Gore said Monday. The boy's friends captured the incident on video.
Deputy Jeremy Banks, an eight-year veteran of the department, found the teen on Saturday after the teen's mother reported him as a runaway and told the deputy where he might find her son, Gore said. He'd been missing a day and a half.
Banks located the teen about 5 p.m. behind a business on South Mission Road near Ammunition Road. He was skateboarding with others when he was found.
The deputy repeatedly asked the teen to get in the back of the patrol car, but the boy ignored him, Gore said.
In attempting to get the teen in the car, the deputy and boy ended up struggling on the ground with the deputy having his arm around the teen's upper body. Gore said that the teen bit Banks while they were on the ground and that is when the deputy deployed a Taser to take control of the boy, the sheriff said.
At a news conference at the sheriff's headquarters in Kearny Mesa, Gore showed photos of the bite marks on the deputy's arm. He said the teen is 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighs 140 pounds.
"The deputy was very conscientious in this case," Gore said. "In actuality, what we have is an out-of-control juvenile."
The teen was taken to Temecula Valley Hospital to be checked out and was later booked into juvenile hall in San Diego on suspicion of resisting arrest and assaulting a peace officer. After the boy's arrest, his mother was notified of the incident and she apologized for her son's behavior, Gore said.
The sheriff said the use-of-force case will be investigated further, as are all such incidents.
To see a video of the arrest, go to 10News, a KPBS news partner.
Gore's spokeswoman, Jan Caldwell, told The San Diego Union-Tribune on Sunday there will be an investigation into reports that others who recorded the struggle were asked by the deputy to delete their cellphone videos.
