Black 9-year-old attempted suicide after cops handcuffed him: mother

A 9-year-old Black child almost died by suicide after police used excessive force against him, his mother asserts in a new lawsuit against D.C. police.

Niko Estep, who was tragically shot and killed last November in an unrelated gun violence incident, was thrown to the ground and handcuffed by police in 2019, in an incident that was caught on video and prompted prosecutors in Washington, D.C. to issue new guidelines banning such use of force against children under 12, according to The Washington Post. The incident came after Estep allegedly made a "disrespectful comment" and ran away from an officer who reprimanded him for leaning against a parked car.

Estep showed signs of severe posttraumatic stress disorder following the incident, and according to the report, attempted suicide months later and was committed to an inpatient psychiatric ward.

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“What happened to Niko never should have happened. Niko wasn’t a threat to any of those officers and their use of force was outrageous and unnecessary. The police are supposed to protect our community and instead they traumatized Niko,” said his mother, Autumn Drayton, in a statement on the litigation. “He never fully recovered from the incident, and he went from being an outgoing and social little boy to being distant and withdrawn and terrified of authority figures and the people who were supposed to keep him safe.”

None of the four officers named in the complaint were reportedly available for comment.

This comes after years of intense controversy and debate over the use of police force, stemming from a series of cases going back decades, including the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis. While no national reforms ended up passing after that incident, many cities adopted new policies attempting to improve police accountability and limit excessive force.