HARTFORD -- Luis Anglero, the Hartford teen tasered by a city detective on Aug. 19, spoke for the first time publicly about the incident on Thursday night.
Surveillance footage obtained by Fox CT shows the cop shocking Anglero, who appeared to stand there with his arms at his side that summer night.
Anglero was not only hospitalized after the incident, but also charged with breach of peace and interfering with an officer. Prosecutors dropped those charges on Wednesday.
“For them to really see that I was innocent and the charges dropped, it was just a relief to me,” said Anglero, who said he continues to recover both emotionally and physically from the incident. “I’m just getting through it day by day.”
His mother spoke about the legal process. “You know, it took us a couple months and my son needed his justice, I was relieved,” said Mary Ann Yearwood.
Hartford Police did not release a statement about the dismissal of charges, but an internal police investigation from September said Anglero ignored verbal warnings. It also found that the taser-firing detective "complied with HPD policy and procedure."
While Anglero said he wouldn't go so far as to forgive the officer, the teen did say he won't hold a grudge against him.
“He's not my enemy, like, he's still a regular person. He's human being just like me. I don't have no hatred towards him, no anything,” Anglero said, who added he wants to see other action taken by the Hartford Police Department.
“I just hope that like, next time, in like, future situations, that the police have like, more training and personnel to like, so it won't happen to anyone else,” Anglero said.
While in front of the microphones, Anglero and his mother expressed their gratitude towards supporters who turned out for multiple protests on the teen’s behalf. “Thank you to the people that supported me. I wouldn't have gotten the justice I deserve,” the teen said, referring to the dropped charges.
When asked about his long-term plans, Anglero said he’d like to go to college and become a paramedic.
Anglero's lawyer, Jamaal T. Johnson, did not rule out legal action against the city or the Hartford Police Department, though he said his client's focus right now is to relax after hearing that the charges against him were dropped.
Johnson also discussed the need to mend community-police relations and pointed to Donna Berman, organizer of a pilot program in the works with Hartford Police Department called "Violins Not Violence."
"Community resource officers would be chosen to chose about 20 young people who have been kind of on the brink of some problems with police and they would give them either a guitar or a violin, it would be the child's choice, and a voucher to have free music lessons at the Charter Oak Cultural Center. It's a way of saying 'We believe in you and you can do better and we care about you' and it's a way for police to bridge the gap which clearly is a big problem, not only here in Hartford, but across the country," Berman said.
She said the final details are being worked out and that Violins for Violence might be able to accept students as early as February.
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