FORT SMITH AR June 24 2021 — The Police Department announced Tuesday that it’s conducting an internal investigation of two of its officers after the arrests of two juvenile offenders Monday.

Officer Garett Ford and detective Andre Arnoldi arrested two boys after a security officer at Central Mall reported that one of them had threatened to kill him and others with a gun.

Both are seen in body camera footage of the arrest struggling with, then forcibly restraining the two in the mall parking lot.

The investigation will consider whether the officers used racial bias in the arrests, said police Lt. Don Cobb. Both of the youths are Black, and one accused Ford of arresting him only because of his race, according to the arrest report. Ford and Arnoldi are white.

Around 6 p.m. Monday, one of the youths threatened in front of multiple mall employees to return to the mall with a gun and kill people when he was asked to leave after causing trouble, according to police. He fled when Ford approached him in the parking lot, according to video.

The video shows Ford approaching the youth, who is sitting on a curb outside the mall, and asking him identifying questions before the boy sets off running through the parking lot. Once Ford reaches him, the youth repeatedly asks what he did as Ford tries to place him in handcuffs.

The other youth arrested Monday is seen in a nearby crowd of youths, who the security guard said had been causing trouble at the mall.

Ford said in his incident report that he was arresting the youth on felony terroristic threatening counts because of the boy’s earlier statements. Ford didn’t tell the youth why he was detaining him before he placed him in handcuffs. The youth later is heard denying the accusations when the security guard repeats them to Ford.

“You have to tell somebody what they’re being charged with, but the timing on that is at the discretion of the officer,” Cobb said when asked Wednesday

When the youth resisted arrest, Arnoldi pinned him to the ground, the video shows. The youth is screaming in the video that he can’t breathe and telling the officers to get off him. Ford repeatedly tells the youth to calm down.

Ford says in the report that he didn’t apply pressure to the youth’s neck.

Once he is handcuffed, the other youth is seen in the video reaching toward Ford.

“I told you four times to get away from me,” Ford says to the youth as he grabs the boy by his arm and tries to handcuff him. The youth moves his elbow backward, at which point Ford’s body camera moves quickly and then has a piece of paper in front of the lens.

A mall security officer is seen taking the piece of paper from in front of the lens before it’s placed back. The camera is then replaced on the front of Ford’s uniform.

“Ford’s body camera was knocked to the ground during the arrest of the second juvenile,” a Police Department news release states.

While the camera is dislodged, the second youth can be heard asking Ford if he is being arrested because of his race. Cobb said the use of force investigation “will expand to” this accusation.

A woman who said she was the aunt of the youth accused of threatening mall security posted on Facebook on Tuesday, asking why the police didn’t check his identification or call his father. She accused police of treating him “like an animal.”

The Facebook post includes a 38-second video of Ford and Arnoldi struggling with the youth and then taking him to the ground and a 14-second video of the youth screaming “I can’t breathe” as the officers pin him to the ground.

The woman who posted the videos couldn’t be reached through social media Wednesday.

A 15-second video clip of the arrest posted to social media was “lacking considerable context,” the release states, prompting the Police Department to release to media a 14-minute clip from Ford’s body camera.

Cobb said Wednesday that the Police Department will release what it is able to in compliance with state juvenile protection laws once the investigation is complete.

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