Lansing Police videos show detention of 12-year-old boy

A Lansing Police officer approached a 12-year-old boy with his gun out of its holster, body cam footage of the incident reveals.

“Turn around for me. Put your hands behind your back,” LPD Officer Damon Pulver says as he approaches the youth, gun in hand. “Stay right there, okay?”

The body cam footage, and video from the dashboard cameras of patrol cars, were obtained by 6 News through Freedom of Information Act request.

Pulver’s personal body cam didn’t start recording until after the youth was detained.

But the body cam footage Officer Summer Haynes caught the moment officers realized the youth was not the person for whom they were searching.

“It’s not him,” says Haynes.

Tashawn Bernard is the boy in the video, and police say he was wearing clothing that matched the description of a suspect in a series of KIA car thefts.

Police call the detention of the child an “unfortunate misunderstanding.”

Additional footage shows Bernard being led to a police cruiser – shaken and upset. He says he had not done anything wrong.

In the video, all permanent body cam and dash camera video from the Lansing Police Department is included in real-time. The moment when Officer Pulver approaches the 12-year-old with his gun out of his holster happens at approximately 21 minutes into this video.

The incident occurred on Aug. 11 as LPD investigated the car thefts on the 3600 block of Jolly Rd.

The videos show officers following as a K-9 unit searches a local neighborhood and apartment complex.

Bernard was taking the trash out, his father says. That’s when Pulver saw the youth, and he was handcuffed.

Shortly after Pulver placed Bernard in handcuffs, a bystander caught the young boy being led away in cuffs. The video on TikTok video went viral. That social media video showed the boy being led away in handcuffs.

Lawyers representing Bernard’s family are reviewing the videos.

Police call the detention of the child an “unfortunate misunderstanding.”