FBI wants tape of police beating teen

HOUSTON, April 30 (UPI) -- The FBI has requested videotape footage of Houston police officers allegedly beating and kicking a handcuffed teenager, a community activist said.

The surveillance videotape allegedly shows the beating of Chad Holley, a high school sophomore, who was 15 at the time, as he was lying on the ground, The Houston Chronicle said.

Activist Quanell X, who told the newspaper the FBI is requesting the videotape, said the boy, who had no criminal record, was "brutalized" by officers who kicked him in the face, then high-fived one another.

"His civil rights were violated," the activist said Thursday. "We are demanding the Harris County district attorney's office indict these officers for official oppression (and) excessive use of force."

An FBI official in the Houston office said the agency is monitoring the case but did not comment on the activist's claims.

The report came after Houston Mayor Annise Parker watched the video Thursday.

"I was extremely upset, angry and frankly disturbed by what I saw," Parker said. "The incident clearly got out of hand. … The subject was not resisting at all when the incident occurred."

The incident led to the suspensions with pay of eight officers, Quanell X said. The police internal affairs division and the district attorney's office are investigating.

Holley, now 16, was arrested March 24 on a burglary charge and tried to run from officers, police said.

In an interview with KHOU-TV, Houston, Holley disputed resisting and said he was punched in the face and kicked in the back while on the ground.

"I thought they were just going to handcuff me and then just put me in the car, but after that they just started kicking me and made my head rush," he said.

The video, sent to police by a private citizen, was recorded by a surveillance camera at a self-storage business and shows more than one angle.

The boy's mother, Joyce Holley, said at a news conference Thursday she was shocked by her son's injuries, which included a fractured nose and multiple bruises and required 12 hours of treatment at West Houston Medical Center.

"I wouldn't mind letting everybody see what they did to my son," she said.