Civil rights attorneys, former law enforcement officials, and mental health experts tell Metro Times that the Warren Police Department’s handling of 26-year-old Christopher Gibson was not only unnecessary but, according to several experts, it was illegal and should have led to charges.
Gibson was “brutally battered, tasered and threatened with a barking K-9” while in custody in December 2022, according to a lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Michigan. The suit says Gibson, who has schizophrenia, was denied psychiatric help even after his mother pleaded with police to take him to a hospital. Instead, they arrested him and locked him in a cell, where body-cam footage shows officers pepper-spraying, hooding, and repeatedly tasering him as he screamed for help. He was later hospitalized with heart and kidney damage.
Despite the severity of the allegations, Macomb County Prosecutor Pete Lucido, whose office would be responsible for criminal charges, has not taken any action. It’s unclear if Warren police even forwarded an investigation to the prosecutor’s office…