Local

Teen beaten by former Atlanta police officer suffered concussion, mother says

ATLANTA — We're hearing for the first time from the mother of a teenager beaten by an Atlanta police officer after a high-speed chase.

The APD fired the officer after reviewing it.

"Something needs to be done to him. He needs to go to jail," Zabora Brown said.

When she spoke to Channel 2's Nefertiti Jaquez she broke down in tears while staring at images of her son's badly beaten face. When looked at the pictures of the bruises, she said they tear at her soul.


TRENDING STORIES:


"You kicked him and beat him and you're supposed to be who he goes to for protection?" she said.

Her son's "protector" was supposed to be Matthew Johns, who at the time was an Atlanta police officer. But Johns was relieved of duty after he was captured on dashcam video repeatedly kicking and punching Antraveious Payne after a police chase in Southwest Atlanta.

Brown explained when she arrived at the hospital on Sept. 15, 2016, officers told her his injuries were sustained when the stolen BMW he was in crashed at the end of the pursuit. But the video we

Family of the teen beaten by an APD officer says he suffered a concussion. This exclusive photo shows him in the hospital.

first showed you Monday proves otherwise.

Cameras caught Johns jumping out of a cruiser and immediately running up to Payne and repeatedly kicking him, punching him and kneeling on his neck. Officers on the scene said neither Payne or the other teens in the car resisted arrest.

"No matter what he was doing it doesn't give him the right to kick my son and punch him," Brown said.

She's also mad Johns wasn't fired until July 26. Her attorney Shean Williams echoed this sentiment.

"I don’t give them a pass or a pat on the back that they fired him 10 months later. I think it’s even worse – because they paid for 10 months knowing that he violently beat this young man," Williams said.