The Independence, Missouri, police officer that tasered 17-year-old Bryce Masters in September was indicted last Thursday by a federal grand jury.
The indictment has been sealed and will remain so until the officer, Tim Runnels, makes his first appearance in court. However, it is believed that Runnels faces two charges relating to the use of force and his failure to assist the teen after he collapsed.
When asked about the charges, Runnels told KCTV5, “I have no information and I am unable to comment at this time due to the records being sealed.”
Likewise, an attorney representing Masters offered a similar comment on not being able to discuss the charges at this point in time.
“We want to respect the process and as a result we defer all questions on the indictments to the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” Attorney Dan Haus said. “The Masters family would like to thank the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI for their professionalism and vigilance in investigating this case.”
Here is the story as it appeared in GunsAmerica on Sept. 15, 2014:
An Independence, Missouri, police officer tasered and allegedly roughed up a 17-year-old on Sunday, leaving the young man in critical condition, local media reports.
Bryce Masters was heading over to a friends house Sunday afternoon when he was stopped by police who recognized that he had an outstanding traffic violation.
A police official for the department said that Masters was not following directives, refusing to roll down his vehicle’s window.
“I believe he did crack the window but did not roll it down any further,” said Sgt. Darrell Schmidli. “He was just being completely uncooperative with the officer.”
“The driver refused to exit the vehicle,” continued Schmidli. “A struggle ensued, a Taser was deployed by the officer. The driver was finally removed out of the car. A struggle ensued once he was moved out of the car.”
Witnesses said that during the struggle, Masters hit his head on the street and the officer failed to recognize that the teen was seriously injured.
“The cop was like, ‘you want to mess with me,’ and pulled out his Taser and tased him. I thought he shot him. Then he pulled him out of the car handcuffed him and drug him around the car,” witness Michelle Baker told KCTV.
“It looked like he hit his head on the concrete. You could see blood coming out of his mouth,” added Baker. “The cop put his foot on his back and moved it back and forth like he was putting a cigarette out and asked him, ‘are you ready to get up now?’ You could tell the kid was going into convulsions.”
Emergency medics arrived and treated Masters, who has since been put into a medically-induced coma because of the trauma to his brain. He is listed in critical condition.
While I myself am a former LEO, many of these thugs with a badge & gun are worse than your average criminal brcause they are given the licence to kill and have an entire legal system to cover thier ass unless it is a case of white cop shootd minority. Every officer is taught the use of force. By that definition you are only to use the minimum amount of force required to gain controle “IF” and only if you do not have it. You do not tse someone then kick them, punch them in the face, slam thier heafs off the trunk of the unit you drive. Criminals with a badge should be striped immediately and charged/ tried as the thug criminals they ate. I understand all to well the stress of the job but you are supposed to be trained and are responsible / trusted to handle that. Abusing people is not thier job. Smashing out a car window that is 1/4 a way down is an act of a direct abuse of force as a person only needs a window doen far eniugh to hand tge officer documents. The individual DOES NOT have to answer a single queztion period but, with all the videos floating around with cops drawing thier weapons, smashing out wibdows and screaming the BS abuse tactics they learned in the acadamy such as ” always yell in a loude firm tone Stop resisting” as that can cover yoyr ass to beat the shit oyt of the SOB who decided to piss off the wrong cop…Oh yeah, thats usually folliwed by lits of laughter and even a few ” i cant wait to try that one” from these ” peace officers”… The problem is with the generation if officers and the lack of selecting an actual trustworthy person. Most of these pimple faced thugs want war stories. I NEVER answer a cop… Ever and it has nothing to do with respect but everything to do with my constitutional rights of not allowing that cop to trick me into self incrimination which is exactly what they are all trained to do…Do you know how fast you were going? Where yoy headed or comming from? In these examples #1 its non of thier damn business where you are headed ir where yoyr comming from. If they are asking you any queztiobs tgey are fishing, trying to get you to admit guilt in the hopes you expose something thry have no clue about. Do not think that when they ask if you mind if they search your car that by saying yes they will give you a break. Matter of favt say absolutly not! When they lie and tell you how they dont need your permission pray that they search after you told them no.. Even if they claim they have PC which is absolute BS because had they had PC they wouldnt need to ask you permission to search. If they ask why you said no, dont say a word. Yoy said no because its your constitutional right. Let them continue to act like the thugs they are known to be so that they will never again wonder why they are no longer respected. This is one readon I resigned after several years as an LEO. I no longer trusted the officers they hired and it was no longer about being a public servant. I heard new cops talking about the new gadgets for thier AR15s they carry in thier patrole cars and listen as the chuckle while saying how they cannot wait to use them in a real life situation… Are all cops bad? No… But just look at the double standard. Shoit and kill a cop and not only does every surrounding department join in… Not only do you hear on the news all the cops saying ” thry took a brother away and we will bring them down”…. You then learn about how the FBI joins in on the hunt and how they find the unknown shooter in less than 72 hours correct? Ok, then why is it when a civilians loved one is shot a killed you gey some overworked detective who is moreconcerned that his coffee is burnt? Why are they not moving heaven & earth seeking justice for those thry are sworn to serve? Again, double standard. Since the rise of phones recording cops who have enjoyed years of living above the law, we still see thosr who are pissed off about the Federal coyrts that stated Every American Citizen has the right to record any and all LEO’ s acting in any ofgicial LE capacity to include all Federal, State & local LEO’s. Now with all this knowledge you still have to allow them to physically abuse you. You have to allow them to violate your constitutional rights because that is the only way you can own the entire department they work for. If tgey tell you to get out of tge car… Do it. But! Make sure all windows are up and lick all doors as you exit the vehicle. Even when they lue telling you you cannot do it, secure your private property and let the cops explane to the DA why they broke private property that they had no warrent to search. Have you video camera on your phones linked to YT so if you get into a debate with a cop you recird them and if they try to take your phone? Hit that post button as soon as they rwach and scream ” I’m in fear for my life”…. This way if they hit you, you have documented proof you were innocent and that you felt threatened by them. You can then sue the city& department but even better you go after the officers who violated your right ls with a civil suit. File a lean on thier home, cars etc… Take them to civil court and sue them as a civilian because once its shown they acted outside department regulations, well now, that badge means nothing in civil court and you can now go agter tjier homeowners insurance etc… I know this post sounds mean folks but the amount of abuse thesethugs commit is out of hand. I still recall a homless man who was shot over 47 times by 17 cops when his only weapon was a rake he used to rake the dirt around his tent. He was also know by the department to have psychological issues and as the people of the town said, the man was harmless yet more than 20 cops responded and yet not a single one of these highly trained LEOs could deescalat the situation? Not 1 cop could use non lethal force? All 17 cops who filled this man with over 45 rounds felt thier lives were in immediate danger? And yet every cop who executed an innocent man walked…. His crime? POP…..a.k.a. Piss Off the Police….. Hows that for justice…
The guy got what he deserved. F criminal scum. The scum should have been shot.
The worst part is that the police are investigating themselves, conflict of interest?? Here’s the kicker, with over sight from the same people that are in charge of hiring these murderous thugs. We need a TRUE independent investigation and make ALL of these public servants accountable.
Here’s the resolution to this case, now STFU you cop-brutality supporting scum. No wonder so many people are starting to hate cops in this country.
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/cop-sentenced-years-prison-putting-officers-son-coma/
I hope that guy never is the same again. Let us hope he has a blood clot and it goes to his heart and he drops over. He is nothing but scum. He should have fixed the window and taken care of his warrant before this.
Sad to see a good officer is having to pay because liberals love their criminals. Civil war can’t happen soon enough.
WTH’s with the pasture pool video at the top?
Is that a pre April fools joke?
Generally speaking with the corrupt system that protects Officers from being indicted it is very rare that one is unless there is graphic video evidence and the offense is so far over the top that no amount of pro-cop propaganda can be used to protect him.
Top criminal justice lawyers from across the nation have repeatedly stated that the law must be changed to make it mandatory that indictments be handed out by independent prosecutors as local prosecutors are often politically tied to police departments and even often have blood relatives in the police departments making it impossible for the average case to go to court so a jury can decide guilt or innocence. Our current system is not much different than Putin’s outrageous behavior in Russia and the sooner America wakes up, realizes this and takes action to change the law we are headed for a full blow police state as we already have (due to the frightening Snowden revelations) illegal and complete surveillance of all U.S. citizens 24 hours around the clock and we will soon have advanced robot police officers that will be modern futuristic computer controlled police robots and these robots are not something in the distant future they are only several years away from being perfected and deployed.
Who knows maybe robot police officers will be a good thing as they will not be subject to out of control brutality and emotions that are part of so many cops behavior these days. They do not need medical care or need retirement money either and when not needed they are not paid unemployment compensation either. Yeah I think I like this idea of Robot police officers as they could actually be programed to be civilized.
Or hacked to murder you.
What is going on with all the police brutality in the news lately. I live in a high crime city but we have one of the lowest police shootings in the nation…. Seems to me there needs to be better training programs installed in these police depts. with regular retraining.
Tell that to Holder, who’s making it all possible.
Maybe Just Maybe this whole situation could have been avoided had the teen told the officer that he window doesn’t work and the next instruction from the officer would have been please open the door and slowly exit the vehicle. I’ve run into this scenario before as a police officer. Had the teen refused my instructions and given the fact that there was a warrant associated with this vehicle I too may have broken a window and possibly razed the individual. Officer have a duty to care but not a duty to be a target! this kid did not offer any reason for not rolling down his window nor did he try to open his car door to talk clearly to the officer involved and failed to identify himself to the officer as the law instructs. If his car window did not roll down and further than an inch he still could have passed his license through the opening and informed the Officer that the window didn’t work and shockingly this whole situation could have been avoided. Let’s stop passing Judgement until ALL the facts are known remember Mike Brown the strong armed robber and attacker of police officers and who never had his hands raised but the media claimed otherwise and created a race riot!
The tazers need to be taken away as they are bein misused by PD. In my state an unlawful arrest can be resisted with as much force as the officer. To many people being hurt and killed. By PD. If the wrong house is broken in to and an innocent person is killed or harmed. Then the officers ought to be tried and punished just like any other thug would.
Yep. Remove the tasers! Let’s go back to killing scum the old fashioned way with bullets.
Trial by media is an excellent tool to move forward an agenda, just look at Harry Reid’s arrogence at lying about Romney to successfully influence the election. Many police departments have a negative reputation, earned or not, by their SOPs, actions and/or inactions. It is unlikely that sealed court cases are going to radically motivate police department to change their SOP.
Trial by media is one of many effective strategies to influence/change police SOP. Especially, when the results of those SOP end in the maiming or killing of a child. I understand fairness to the officers out there and in an ideal world they wouldn’t have to deal with this, but as Officer Friendly has told some of us, “You should have thought about the consequences of your actions…now watch your head.”
Ok, so resist arrest and get tased. Here is the liberal scenario. “Mr. Jones, you have a warrant for rape. Please step from the vehicle.” Jones reples, “F**k you!” Officer, “Okay Mr. Jones, you have a nice day.” End of traffic stop.
That’s what it’s coming to. I was a LEO for thirty years, so glad I’m retired. But my son is beginning his career and I’m worried for him. Say a prayer for him.
Advise him to body cam so he wont be scrutinized
Why seal the records…????????? Seems to me like they are trying to still protect this criminal with a badge and gun.
Before people start accusing the police officer of every crime under the sun, let’s do the civilized thing and await the due legal process that is supposed to differentiate us from those countries that just have mob rule. For all we know, you and I may have behaved in exactly the same manner, had we been confronted with similar circumstances. Trial by media is every bit as uncivilized as over zealous policing. (Something that we don’t yet know even happened)
A taser isn’t a tool for “police revenge”, nor are the police allowed by any law I’m aware of to dole out ass-whippings because you made them angry.
We don’t *need* to wait months or years to pass judgement on this situation, because there is no *justifiable* reason to tase someone in a vehicle who has no weapon. The driver in the car can’t “threaten” an officer from inside a stopped vehicle if the cop is standing next to the door. His arms aren’t long enough to punch anyone, and no one is getting run over, because the cop is on the side of the vehicle. No threat = no taser.
When cops stop treating the public like meat, they’ll stop getting “tried in the media”. This isn’t hard to understand & no one is getting “picked on”.
Mark, for as much as you talk, you sure don’t know much, do you? A taser is exactly what you use on someone who is resisting but unarmed. That’s what it was designed for–it’s the modern equivalent of pepper spray and it’s intended to allow officers to gain control of someone who is actively resisting their attempts to place them under arrest. So please stop embarrassing yourself by posting misinformation. When the police tell you to get out of a car and you refuse, THAT is resistance right there, and that’s the standard for using a taser, no threat required.
I guess that in your special snowflake world, no one has to obey lawful commands from the police or submit to lawful arrest. That’s why those of us who have actually done stuff in this world have no use for your generation. Frankly, America was a better place for everyone before you kids came along with your sense of entitlement and demanded trophies and respect just for showing up.
Guess the kid that was tasered 17 times after falling off an overpass and breaking his back deserved it too since he failed to comply with officers orders to move out of the road, eh Dan? Every situation is different and use of force should be an officers last response, not his first.
Advice on Police pulling you over;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=9gCCjFbFXn8