Protest over handling of ‘cuffed teen’

TYLER — Community members demonstrated Tuesday night at Grand Slam in Tyler, following an incident last weekend. Christian Tyler, 15, was asked to leave the facility. He was eventually detained, put into hand cuffs and pushed to the pavement. Tyler’s mom, Tonya Petite told our news partner KETK, “When you hear it happen to your child because I was on the phone when it happened I lost it completely.” Others that saw the video on social media were upset prompting the gathering at the business.

Laya Washington denounced the handling of the situation by the security crew, which is said to be off-duty Bullard police officers. “It was no reason why they should have slammed him down like that especially if he was in handcuffs. Christian was unarmed he wasn’t really a threat so there’s no point of police brutality.”