Bucks DA investigating Quakertown police after violent confrontation with students protesting ICE

The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office announced Saturday that it is conducting an investigation into the police response to a walkout by Quakertown High School students who were protesting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions.

Parents of students, community members and civil rights organizations, including Bucks County NAACP, Bucks County Indivisible, Upper Bucks United and Welcome PA, demanded answers at a press conference outside the Quakertown Police Department on Saturday morning, a day after the violent confrontation resulted in multiple arrests.

“When young people are involved in an encounter with law enforcement, the standard for care, restraint and adherence to policy are high and must be adhered to,” Bucks County NAACP President Adrienne King said to a crowd gathered outside of the Quakertown Police Department station. “This is not controversial. It is expected. Video circulating publicly has raised serious questions in our community. Those questions deserve answers, and we are here to ask for those answers today.”

More than 30 Quakertown High School students walked out of class to protest ICE on Friday, after the school had canceled a planned walkout. Quakertown Police said in a statement that students were disruptive and were damaging property, as reported in The Philadelphia Inquirer, and “five to six juveniles and one adult” were in custody as of Friday afternoon.

Two people told WHYY News that they witnessed the Friday morning confrontation while having breakfast together at Sunday’s Deli & Restaurant on Front Street. The two women, both 20-year-old Bucks County residents, requested anonymity over fears that their personal information could be released online and concerns for their personal safety.

They said they saw students walking on the sidewalks, holding signs and chanting “No more ICE.”

“From what we could see, the students were just on the sidewalk,” one witness said. “From our angle, a man in a brown jacket lunges towards a group of students, grabbing one of them, and then the students start hitting the man in the brown jacket.”

Both witnesses provided videos to WHYY News that they took from inside the restaurant that show a man in a light-brown jacket on the street struggling with a group of people who appear to be students.

“Oh my god, it’s a grown man and a kid,” someone in the restaurant can be heard saying. “Where are the police?”

The man then places a person, who appears to be a female student, in a chokehold.

A person wearing a vest with the word “police” on the back is seen running toward the frame and then out of the frame as the man in the brown jacket continues to hold the person in a chokehold. Other people who appear to be students are then seen hitting the man, who falls to the ground with the girl.

“He’s on a child,” someone can be heard saying in the video. “Why is no one stopping him?”

Videos show the man in the brown jacket speaking with police officers and then driving away from the scene in an unmarked white vehicle with flashing lights. Videos also show bloodied signs scattered on the ground.

The witness told WHYY News that what she saw was “extremely jarring.”

“These men were twice the size of these children,” she said. “It seems like the police made absolutely no effort to de-escalate the situation.”

Outside the police station Saturday morning, speakers said students who were arrested Friday were still in police custody at that time.

A woman who identified herself as Allison at the press conference, but withheld her last name, said her stepdaughter “was wrongfully accused,” and was then assaulted, thrown to the ground and put in a chokehold.

“We just want her home safe,” she said. “We want respect for our daughter and for the other students … who were there.”

WHYY News is working to confirm whether Allison’s stepdaughter is still detained.

Laura Foster, co-founder of Upper Bucks United, a grassroots nonpartisan group affiliated with Indivisible, said she and other community members are questioning the police response.

“It’s been reported to us that the adult seen holding a student in a chokehold was our chief of police,” she said. The Bucks County Courier Times, in an article published Friday, identified the man in the brown jacket as Quakertown Police Chief Scott McElree.

“Parents are asking plainly, ‘Was this him? Why was he not in proper uniform, and why was that level of force used on a student?’” Foster said. “We also have serious questions about de-escalation. Why was the first instinct to come barreling in instead of slowing down the situation and protecting our children?”

The Quakertown Borough Police Department and Quakertown Borough did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The police department reshared the DA’s Office investigation announcement on its Facebook page Saturday afternoon.

The Quakertown Community School District did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office requested that anyone with information, video or photos contact county detectives at 215-348-6354.