A Quakertown High School student who filmed a violent clash between police and a group of teenagers Friday alleges that officers assaulted the students without justification.
The Bucks County Courier Times has identified a plainclothes officer in the videos as Quakertown Borough police Chief Scott McElree through photos, videos and eyewitness identifications. McElree has not returned requests for comment.
Bucks County District Attorney Joe Khan’s office said in a statement that Quakertown police had repeatedly warned some of the protesters to stay out of traffic and to stop damaging cars.
“Additional officers were called to the scene when confrontations escalated, and some individuals assaulted officers,” Quakertown Police said in a statement Friday night.
The student, who requested anonymity to avoid reprisals, filmed much of the conflict between about a dozen kids and several police officers and gave a phone interview on Friday evening.
Quakertown student says police violence was unjustified
The student and other classmates were told Friday morning that a planned walkout at the school was canceled without explanation, the student said, but he and his classmates decided to leave school anyway to express their opposition to ICE tactics.
He walked with a small group of students in town until they reached the Bush Hotel, where they joined a larger group of protesters and headed down Front Street with signs, chanting anti-ICE slogans.
“We wanted to be loud so people would hear us,” he said.
Though the high school is mostly white, a large proportion of the protesters were Black and Hispanic, he said.
The group was on the sidewalk near Sunday’s Deli when one officer grabbed a sophomore girl’s arm, as captured in multiple videos. The officer tells the kids to stay out of the street. A second officer in a dark coat moves to stand next to the first officer on the sidewalk.
Suddenly, a man in a tan shirt, since identified as McElree, appears to charge into the group of kids and grab one who had been backing away, holding a phone. The student is seen tussling with McElree and hitting him his cellphone. Others in the crowd also join in the scuffle.
In the chaos, some people had no idea who the man was, the student said, and started defending themselves against the unknown attacker.
“Everyone started to beat on him because he was grabbing at random kids,” the student said.
One of the students who appeared to jump in to defend a classmate against the tan-shirted man was then thrown to the ground by a uniformed officer.
The officer can be heard on video telling the kid that the man he went after is the chief of police — Scott McElree.
“He didn’t even announce he was chief of police. We were confused,” the student said.
Police, in their statement, said officers were assaulted and said they intervened when a “portion of participants engaged in disruptive and unsafe behaviors prompting police intervention to protect the public safety and maintain order.”
Although it’s unclear from public videos whether there were one or multiple men in tan shirts clashing with teens, the student said McElree was the only one he saw wearing tan, and that he was the one photographed putting a freshman girl in a chokehold.
Photos show the man with blood on his face and hand, and blood on the ground, after his fight with the students. Another video shows him getting into the driver seat of a police vehicle and telling first responders that he is OK.
“How it ended was really not the way we intended,” the student said.
The protesters know they may face disciplinary action at school for leaving, the student said. “Most of us are ready to face the consequences of our actions.”
The kids are shaken after the altercation and the arrests of multiple classmates, the student said, “but we’re strong together, and I want to be strong for me and my classmates.”
