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Lawyer: Shortridge student didn’t provoke IMPD officer attack

Lawsuit filed against officers

Richard Essex - News 8 at 5

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A lawyer representing a Shortridge High School student wants more than a suspension for the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officer who was seen on video punching the student.

Two videos of the altercation that happened last week have been released. One was released last week, while another one — which shows the incident from the beginning to the end — was released on Wednesday.

The student’s family is asking for criminal penalties against the officers involved and the family is also asking for civil damages.

Danielle Pointer sat silent next to her lawyer Terrance Kinnard during a press conference Thursday morning. Pointer was far from silent a week ago when she was seen on video being escorted by police away from Shortridge High school.

IMPD officer Robert Lawson, who has since been suspended without pay, is accused of  punching Pointer’s 17-year-old nephew, identified in the lawsuit as A.W.

A.W. and another student had been involved in an incident inside the school. News 8 has learned one student was sprayed with a chemical agent, prompting Indianapolis Public Schools police to put the school on lockdown and call IMPD for help.

“What I would like to see happen to this officer, I would like to see him get to be fully adjudged in a court of law for his actions, merely being suspended by his employer that is a great first step,” said Kinnard.

Attorney discusses Shortridge HS incident

Attorney discusses Shortridge HS incident

According to Kinnard, A.W. didn’t say anything to the officer to provoke the attack.

“He believes in the rule of law, he follows authority figures, has by his own actions, when the officer summoned him forward he took one step forward and complied completely what he believes was the officer’s command, before the officer unprovokingly struck him in the face,” said Kinnard.

Officer Lawson is accused in the lawsuit of also putting A.W. into a headlock and striking him with his knee. The video shows Pointer grab A.W. as he falls to the ground.

“A.W. is absolutely suffering from depression, he is not feeling his normal happy-go-lucky self because he truly believes that adults or authority figures that he should follow the rule of law, that he should follow commands by authority figures when they are reasonably given and when he did exactly what his parents trained him to do he was physically assaulted, he was kicked out of the school that he loves,” Kinnard said.

A.W has been suspended from school and the other student is being kept at home while the matter is being investigated.