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In the video, Runnels pulls Bryce over and approaches the car. He tells Bryce to get out but doesn’t give a reason. Bryce repeatedly asks if he is under arrest. Runnels says, “You’re under arrest. Get your ass out of the car,” and attempts to pull him out by force. He then tases Bryce for 23 seconds, handcuffs him, drags the boy’s body behind the car, and deliberately drops him face first onto the asphalt road. Runnels may not have known it at the time, but Bryce was going into cardiac arrest. When the loud thud of the drop boomed throughout the courtroom, gasps echoed out. One woman looked down and covered her eyes with her hand. A man said, “Oh, my god.” A police officer with the Kansas City Police Department quickly brought his fist to his mouth, turned to the man next to him, and whispered, “Jesus.” Even those sitting behind the defendant — a few friends, his wife, his family — gasped, as if the recording revealed a truth about Runnels they had never considered.
Apparently the kid's dad is a cop and schooled him on his rights when stopped by LE based on a previous arrest...
When Stacy and Matt Masters began having children, they moved across the border to Kansas City so Matt could keep his job as an officer with the Kansas City Police Department.
A friend at the Independence police station called Matt to tell him his son had just been arrested. Matt headed to jail and posted Bryce’s bail. Later, when they got home and Bryce described what had happened, something about the arrest didn’t seem right. Matt couldn’t see any probable cause. He told Bryce that the officer shouldn’t have gone into his pockets and the search was likely illegal.
Outraged, Stacy called the station and demanded to speak to the officers involved. She told the sergeant she spoke to that the family believed the officers had conducted an illegal search and that they were considering filing a complaint. The sergeant didn’t respond well to the threat and told her that if she were a better mother, maybe none of this would have happened.
Matt was furious. He and Stacy sat Bryce down. They told him that they were disappointed he was smoking marijuana but that his civil rights had been violated. Matt told him that if an officer ever stopped him, he had every right to know why he was being stopped, and whether he was under arrest. The conversation was still fresh in Bryce’s mind on September 14 when Officer Runnels pulled him over.
Outraged, Stacy called the station and demanded to speak to the officers involved. She told the sergeant she spoke to that the family believed the officers had conducted an illegal search and that they were considering filing a complaint. The sergeant didn’t respond well to the threat and told her that if she were a better mother, maybe none of this would have happened.
Matt was furious. He and Stacy sat Bryce down. They told him that they were disappointed he was smoking marijuana but that his civil rights had been violated. Matt told him that if an officer ever stopped him, he had every right to know why he was being stopped, and whether he was under arrest. The conversation was still fresh in Bryce’s mind on September 14 when Officer Runnels pulled him over.
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