Rancho Cordova officer who fought, punched 14-year-old boy is fired, Sheriff’s Office says

A Rancho Cordova officer who was involved in a violent confrontation earlier this year with a 14-year-old boy has been terminated from the department.

The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office — which is under contract with Rancho Cordova to provide law enforcement service — said in an email on Wednesday that, “After an administrative investigation into the incident, the involved deputy was terminated from employment with the Sheriff’s Office.”

The deputy, identified by the boy’s family as Brian Fowell, was reassigned following an altercation with the boy on April 27. The incident was captured in a cell phone video less than a minute long and showed the deputy struggling to gain control of the teen on a curb in the area of Mills Station Road and Mather Field Road. At one point, the officer struck the teen in the abdomen.

The incident gained national attention when the video was viewed more than 7 million times and shared on social media by public figures including vice presidential nominee and California Sen. Kamala Harris.

The boy, identified as Elijah Tufono by family members on social media, expressed remorse at the time, telling Fox 40, “Sir, I’m sorry for the way that I acted towards you and for not cooperating. And I just hope that we could meet again and be on better terms.”

But in a press conference, Tufono’s family called the incident an unjustified “beating.”

Fowell was responding to a report of hand-to-hand sales of alcohol, tobacco and drugs to minors when he encountered Tufono.

“The deputy saw what he believed to be a hand-to-hand exchange between an adult and juvenile,” said sheriff’s spokeswoman Sgt. Tess Deterding in a statement at the time. “As the deputy turned around, he lost sight of the adult, who left the area. When the deputy approached the juvenile, the juvenile was uncooperative and refused to give the deputy basic identifying information.”

The officer tried to detain the boy but the Sheriff’s Office said he became “physically resistive.”

The officer was alone and lost control of his handcuffs during the incident.

The video shows less than a minute of the incident in which the deputy tries to gain control of the teen by pinning him beneath his body weight.

As the video continues, the deputy grabs the teen’s right wrist and pulls his arm in an apparent attempt to turn the teen onto his stomach. The teen appeared to resist, and the deputy uses his right hand to push the teen’s face toward the ground as he tries to pull the teen’s right hand behind his back.

Then, the deputy is seen in the video using his right hand to punch the teen as he used his left hand to hold down the teen.

The person capturing the struggle on video is heard yelling in an apparent attempt to get the teen and the officer to stop. “Stop hitting him, boss,” the person with the camera says to the officer.

At one point, the teen appears to yell out in pain when his face makes contact with a cement curb as the officer places his hand firmly on the teen’s back.

Rancho Cordova Police Chief Kate Adams responded to the incident in a video statement at the time, saying “as a chief of police and a mom, I have many of the same concerns that have been expressed since the release of the video on social media.”

Adams said in her video that she and Fowell had seen the news report and had reached out to the family to set up a meeting.

“It is heartening to me that on both sides with the young man and the officer there is a desire to listen to each other and understand how the situation could have been different,” Adams said.

It is unclear if the two ever met.

This story was originally published September 24, 2020 at 5:58 AM.