Door-To-Door Candy Sale Leads To Battery, 3 Kids Arrested: Police

Greendale WI

26 October, 2021

5:33 PM

Description

GREENDALE, WI — Greendale police say the Oct. 17 arrest of a Black man and three children who were selling candy door-to-door in Greendale stemmed from disorderly conduct and interference. Now, a relative of the kids who were arrested says the situation should have been handled differently by officers and a local group is asking for more answers from police. In a news release posted Monday, the Greendale Police Department recounts a day full of "repeated distraction" and unproductive interaction with a juvenile victim, male adult chaperone and family despite police attempts to locate suspects in a battery report. According to police, the four arrests came with seemingly discredited accusations by the male chaperone, boiling over on the front lawn of a Greendale home. According to police, video footage proves the accused teenager was home during the battery. On Monday, a protest was held in front of the Greendale Police station in support of the children who were arrested, CBS 58 reported. "They didn't really try to de-escalate the situation," Angelica Laurant, the mother of one of the kids who was arrested and the aunt of another, told Patch. "I feel like some officers need corrective action or they need to go back through training, these officers need to be looked into more because if they have more stuff like this on their record they need to be terminated." Laurant recounted her nephew's and son's descriptions of the event for Patch, but she said she was not present throughout each encounter with police that day. Laurant said she witnessed the arrests from down the street, but prior to that, she was somewhere else, attempting to find jumper cables because one of the group's cars had broken down. Laurant said she was upset with how police handled the situation toward her child, nephew and their friends. The incident started to unfold around 1 p.m. that Sunday. The group of juveniles and a male chaperone were selling candy door-to-door in Greendale. Around that time, Greendale residents called police to report the candy sale was taking place without a permit, police said in the news release. Officers say they told the group that a permit is required, and police said the group agreed to leave the area. An hour later, the department received a call saying that one of the juveniles going door-to-door was assaulted by a group of kids on bikes. The call to police would mark the second time police came into contact with the juveniles and chaperone that day out of multiple times. The nephew told Laurant a group of white boys on bikes approached him and asked about the candy. He told her the boy got mad when he refused to sell him candy for $2, so the boy hit him. "He [Laurant's nephew] said he hit him back, and that's when the other boys jumped off the bikes and they were pretty much all jumping on him," Laurant said. The battery left him with a bloody nose, swelling and blood on his shoes. Police said in the news release they attempted to investigate the battery, but they were met with minimal information from the juvenile victim. Police also said the adult male chaperone was uncooperative and that he said he would take matters into his own hands. According to police, officers searched the area for possible battery suspects, but nobody was immediately located. Police said the investigation is still in progress, but as of Monday, no further leads have been developed beyond the information provided by the juvenile. The Greendale Police Department asked anyone who has information related to this incident to contact (414) 423-2121. According to police, the chaperone made multiple statements to Officers that he was looking for the juveniles who committed the battery. The chaperone and juveniles were then seen driving through the area for over two hours following the initial battery investigation, police said. Police said several people reported the car as suspicious, and that they eventually received calls saying the adult chaperone was going through yards and questioning owners of bicycles into their involvement in the possible battery. The situation turned into arrests two hours after the initial report of battery when police say the man who was chaperoning the candy sale showed up at the front porch of a Greendale resident's house. Officers showed up to the home as well. Police said they found the man talking to the homeowner, accusing his teenage son of committing the battery earlier that day. Police said they reviewed security footage from the home and that it proved the teenager was home when the battery occurred, but an argument still occurred between the chaperone and an adult at the house. Police said they told the adult chaperone to leave the property, but he refused. The Greendale man who was being accused by the chaperone told police the group threw objects at his house and damaged other parts of his lawn. According to police, the chaperone said he would not leave the Greendale home until the teenager was arrested or until he could confront the teenager himself. Police claim in the news release it was around then the chaperone and juveniles started to make threatening statements referencing the teenager who was accused of battery. Police say they arrested the chaperone for disorderly conduct. Police added the juveniles interfered during the arrest and refused to leave the area so they were also arrested. Police say the juveniles were warned multiple times before their arrests but each warning was ignored. That day Laurant posted a different version of events on her Facebook. The group's car had broken down in front of the home where things later went bad, the post read. The post claims that at one point the homeowner approached the group and the nephew thought he saw one of the juveniles who attacked him step out from the home. That's when things went bad, the post read. "Race definitely played a key in this factor today. If this was 5 black kids that jumped on a Caucasian boy they would literally be grabbing every single African American boy that fit the description of being black," Laurant later posted on her Facebook. "What should have happened, I feel like it should have been more of an investigation. At least people contacting us, letting us know how far they got. With that happening to a child, there should have been more communication," Laurant said. "I feel like they know who these kids are." Laurant said she met with Greendale Police Chief Ryan Rosenow on Monday following the protest, but that the conversation felt like the blame was being put on her nephew for what happened. "Pretty much, it was like they didn't believe nothing we were saying, as you can see in the press release, they still don't believe anything we were saying. They weren't trying to listen to us, they still aren't trying to listen to us," Laurant said. "I can't speak on any other person's actions I can just speak on what happened to my child and my nephew." "They had handcuffs so tight, he was screaming. He even got into the back of an ambulance handcuffed," Laurant told reporters about her nephew in a conference at the protest Monday. "If he's a victim, why is he being treated like that?" People Advocating For Greendale Equality, a local organization otherwise known as PAGE that works to challenge and dismantle racism, ableism, sexism, homophobia and other forms of injustice in Greendale called for action from the Greendale Police Department: "P.A.G.E. calls on the Greendale Police Department, and particularly on Chief Rosenow, to explain and apologize for the actions of several Greendale PD officers last weekend, and to enter into mediated conversation with the family involved and their legal representatives regarding reform and other means to make amends to the family." "P.A.G.E. calls upon Chief Rosenow and his staff to perform a full and transparent investigation of the officers' behavior, calling in outside agencies if necessary, and to keep the parties updated on developments in this internal investigation, as well as on investigations into the events that led up to this incident." The Greendale Police news release is available online. The People Advocating for Greendale Equality news release is available online.