Vacaville cop who punched teen placed on leave, newspaper says
(Graphic by Solano NewsNet)
A Vacaville police officer who was shown on video punching a teenager during an encounter this week has been removed from the job while the agency investigates the circumstances of what happened, according to a report.
Late Friday evening, the Vacaville Reporter said the police officer — who was not identified by name but is reportedly a veteran with the agency — was placed on administrative leave “while the investigation is conducted.”
The officer’s actions drew widespread condemnation from the community after the father of 17-year-old Preston Wolf published a home surveillance video of the incident.
Preston, who is autistic, was allegedly involved in an altercation with another teenager on Wednesday. That fight drew the attention of Vacaville police, who were initially told that the fight may have resulted in a stabbing.
Officers later determined no stabbing had occurred, and the other teenager involved in the fight suffered only superficial injuries.
Preston was nowhere to be found when officers arrived on the scene. A description was broadcast over police radio. At one point, the description included his name, his age and his autism diagnosis.
A radio dispatcher confirmed Preston likely had “special needs” based on prior interactions with police, according to dispatch audio reviewed and first reported by Solano NewsNet.
Within seconds of that dispatch, a patrol officer located Preston near a home along Somerville Drive. Surveillance video released online shows the officer angrily confronting Preston with a demand that he surrender to police or face the possibility of getting hurt.
At one point, the officer picks up a metal scooter belonging to Preston and tosses it onto the sidewalk. The officer grabs Preston as he starts to flee. A scuffle ensues, and the officer deals at least one blow to the teenager’s head.
Ian Schmutzler, Vacaville’s acting police chief, initially said the officer was responding to a preliminary report of a stabbing in progress and did not know Preston’s autism diagnosis. But the dispatch audio called that information into question after Solano NewsNet reported that an officer had widely broadcast to other police officers Preston’s age and diagnosis.
When asked by Solano NewsNet on Friday if the arresting officer could have been in a position where he did not hear the radio broadcast, Schmutzler deferred to a supplementary statement published on Facebook and distributed to reporters.
“Our preliminary review of the available video and radio traffic indicates the arresting officer did not have prior knowledge that the suspect was an individual with special needs,” the statement said. “We are in the process of confirming the time stamps of those various sources, so we have an accurate timeline of the events of the incident.”
Schmutzler said he is working with city officials and investigators to get to the bottom of what happened, and promised more information would be made available in the near future.
In 2018, a spokesperson with the Vacaville Police Department told a local television station that all of its officers were trained to spot verbal, behavioral and social cues from people who may have intellectual, developmental or emotional disabilities. The affirmation came in a news report detailing a pilot project that sought to provide police with more information about community members who had autism.
It was not clear if Preston Wolf’s family participated in the initiative, known internally as the Puzzle Project. In an interview given to a Sacramento television station, a Vacaville police official said the agency had been in touch with Wolf’s family with information about the Puzzle Project following this week’s incident.
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