Webster teen detained in violent arrest caught on camera speaks out

WEBSTER, Mass. — Webster Police have released video from an officer’s body-worn camera of the arrest of a teenager in response to cell phone video posted online showing some of what happened.

Webster Police is defending their officers but the 17-year-old involved is calling what happened in the video “police brutality.”

Japhet Villanueva said he is the juvenile in the video.

The police body cam shows the moments they bring him to the ground on Saturday night and place him under arrest.

“I feel like it was police brutality. I feel like yes, they had a suspicion of what I was doing and they thought I had a gun on me but at the same time,” said Villanueva, ”I was literally shirtless and in female pajama pants, I had no pockets.”

Webster Police said the video circulating online “does not look pretty” while officers wrestle and punch the teen.

They said it all started when they got a call for three juveniles seen taking what appeared to be rifles out of a back pack.

The juveniles were also reported for shooting out a window and then getting into a fight.

When police arrive, the body camera video shows one person holding back another and officers can be heard ordering him to get on the ground before two take him down and a third comes with a taser.

“I have a closed fracture on my nose, my eye, the eye bone around here is like all messed up. I broke my teeth. This one down here, the one next to it’s cracked in the back, I cant even eat correctly,” said Villanueva.

While they are bringing the teen to the ground, Webster Police said the suspect grabbed for one of the officer’s duty belts.

They said in their post, that action can turn into a potentially lethal encounter.

That’s when officers are seen punching, striking the suspect in the chest with their knee, and tasing him.

He said, “I got blamed for reaching for his gun, when I wasn’t reaching for nobody’s gun. They were literally beating me to the ground and I was just trying to protect myself.”

Villanueva says this all had to do with a family argument stemmed around a lie about his cat dying, Villanueva shooting out his brother’s window, and a police report that he had a gun. But he said the BB gun he had was left down the street.

I thought I was being tased over destruction of property because in my head I thought that’s what it was but it turns out he had actually called the cops saying I had a gun on me," said Villanueva.

After the teen was taken into custody, he received medical treatment and was released.

The other juvenile was also taken into custody.

Police said they found 2 BB guns 50 feet away from where the arrest was made.

Boston 25 News Reporter Ryan Breslin asked Villanueva, “How much responsibility do you take for what happened and how much do you think the police were at fault?”

“I feel like for me shooting his windows out, that’s my full responsibility, I did that, I’m not going to lie about it, I’m not going to make excuses about it you know what I’m saying, that was fully me and my friend and we did that. But with the cops doing what they did I feel like that’s not just,” said Villanueva.

Villanueva’s mother Mary Stoliker also sees what happened to him as police brutality.

She said, “The Webster Police Department know both of my boys, unfortunately. And they know Japhet’s mental health, they know how he is. He is not a violent person at all. There was no need for them to do what they did.”

Webster Police said one of the officers involved has a broken hand and will be out of work for the foreseeable future.

Another officer also has minor injuries.

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