Police in a New Jersey township who came under fire two years ago after officers handcuffed a Black teen at a local mall have settled a lawsuit with his family, reports say.
Z’Kye Husain got into an altercation at Bridgewater Commons Mall in February 2022. A viral video obtained by WABC shows Husain in a physical scuffle with another teen — who appeared to have a lighter complexion.
When police responded to the area, two officers from the Bridgewater Township Police Department tackled Husain and placed him in handcuffs, per the footage. The other teen was able to sit on a nearby bench and watch from the sideline.
“The male officer put his knee in my back and then he started putting me in cuffs then the female officer came over and put her knee on my upper back too and started helping him put cuffs on me while he was just sitting down on the couch watching the whole thing,” Husain, who was 14 and an 8th grader at the time, told WABC.
Husain said the conflict started when the other teen, a high schooler, started bullying his friend, a 7th grader, according to the report. The video sparked protests and intense backlash from the community, prompting calls for accountability. Black leaders demanded that the officers be relieved from their duties.
“The NAACP-NJ State Conference was disappointed today to see still another police action irrefutably showing the disparate treatment of African-Americans in our police institutions. Despite years of talk about bias training and accountability, the video of what happened today in Bridgewater cannot be denied,” the civil rights organization said in a statement at the time.
The police department tapped the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office to assist with an investigation. Husain’s family filed a lawsuit against the city alleging that he was discriminated against and “subjected to a hostile environment based on his race.”
Both parties reportedly settled the lawsuit for an undisclosed amount. However, according to NJ.com, court documents revealed that the family received just over $150,000.
“Officers far too often see our [Black] children as predators,” civil rights attorney Ben Crump said at a news conference, per the reports. “We have visual proof of officers doing these nefarious things and yet nothing happens to them.”
