5 Officers Charged After Black Man Paralyzed In Police Van

Five Connecticut police officers have been charged over their arrest of a Black man after he was paralyzed from the chest down in the back of a police van.
FILE - In this image taken from police body camera video provided by New Haven Police, Richard "Randy" Cox, center, is pulled from the back of a police van and placed in a wheelchair after being detained by New Haven Police on June 19, 2022, in New Haven, Conn. The family of Cox, a Black Connecticut man who was paralyzed in June 2022 when a police van without seatbelts braked suddenly, said Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022, that a planned federal civil rights lawsuit has been delayed because the victim is back in the hospital. (New Haven Police via AP, File)
FILE - In this image taken from police body camera video provided by New Haven Police, Richard "Randy" Cox, center, is pulled from the back of a police van and placed in a wheelchair after being detained by New Haven Police on June 19, 2022, in New Haven, Conn. The family of Cox, a Black Connecticut man who was paralyzed in June 2022 when a police van without seatbelts braked suddenly, said Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022, that a planned federal civil rights lawsuit has been delayed because the victim is back in the hospital. (New Haven Police via AP, File)
via Associated Press

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Five Connecticut police officers were charged with misdemeanors Monday over their treatment of a Black man after he was paralyzed from the chest down in the back of a police van.

Randy Cox, 36, was being driven to a New Haven police station June 19 for processing on a weapons charge when the driver braked hard, apparently to avoid a collision, causing Cox to fly headfirst into the wall of the van, police said.

The five New Haven police officers were arrested on charges of second-degree reckless endangerment and cruelty to persons.

The officers each posted a $25,000 bond and are due back in court Dec. 8, according to a news release from state police. Messages seeking comment were sent to attorneys for the officers.

The case has drawn outrage from civil rights advocates like the NAACP, along with comparisons to the Freddie Gray case in Baltimore. Gray, who was also Black, died in 2015 after he suffered a spinal injury while handcuffed and shackled in a city police van.

Five officers were placed on administrative leave in Cox’s case.

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