His wrists were red where the handcuffs had been. His face was streaked with dried tears. His shirt had dirt on it from being dragged across the porch. And the moment he saw his mother, his face crumpled and he ran to her. Rebecca caught him and held him and for a moment she didn't say anything.
She just held her son and felt him shaking against her. Then she looked up at Chief Howard and her voice was quiet and absolute. "Who arrested him?" "Officer Mark Preston." "Where is he?"
"He's out on patrol." Rebecca's expression didn't change. "Call him in. I want his badge. I want his body cam footage.
I want every report related to this arrest on my desk within the hour. And I want him fired." Chief Howard opened his mouth to respond. But Rebecca wasn't finished. Your officer tasered my 12-year-old son on his own front porch for picking up a package with his name on it.
He accused him of theft. He ignored a witness who told him Elijah lived there. He used a taser on a child. And then he brought him here and put him in a holding cell like a criminal. She paused and when she spoke again, every word was deliberate.
"I'm not just his mother. I'm the state attorney, and I'm going to make sure Officer Preston never wears a badge again." Rebecca Turner walked out of the police station with Elijah's hand in hers. And the first thing she did when they got to the car was call her attorney. Not the county's attorney, not someone from her office.
Her personal attorney, Marcus Reed, who had handled civil rights cases for 20 years and had a reputation for taking on police departments and winning. Marcus answered on the second ring. "Rebecca, what's wrong?" Rebecca's voice was steady, but there was an edge underneath it that Marcus had never heard before. "A cop just tasered my son on our front porch and arrested him for trying to steal his own package.
I need you to file a federal lawsuit today." There was a pause on the other end of the line. "Tell me everything." Rebecca told him, every detail, the package, the confrontation, Preston refusing to believe Elijah lived there, the neighbor confirming it, Preston dismissing her. Elijah running, Preston grabbing him.
The taser, the handcuffs, the arrest, and then she told him the part that made Marcus go completely silent. "I'm the state attorney, Marcus. He tasered the son of the state attorney, and he did it on camera." Marcus' voice came back sharp and focused. "Send me everything you have.
The neighbor's video, the body cam footage once you get it, witness statements, medical records. If Elijah needs to be checked, I'll have the complaint drafted by tonight." Rebecca ended the call and drove Elijah home. When they got there, Linda was still standing on her porch and she came over immediately with her phone in her hand. "I sent you the video," Linda said quietly.