A Portland woman has filed a complaint against Clackamas County Sheriff’s Department, alleging deputies used excessive force with her 12-year-old son Monday.

Jarena McDavid said three sheriff’s deputies put her son on the ground after he allegedly didn’t follow their orders to stop walking. McDavid said two officers grabbed her son’s arms, and a third put his knee on her son’s neck. McDavid posted photos on Facebook of injuries she said her son suffered, including bruises on his right cheek and above his right eye.

A Portland 12-year-old had bruises his mother says are from an encounter with Clackamas County Sheriff's Office - she says they used excessive force on her son.Jarena McDavid

McDavid said she has filed a formal complaint with the sheriff’s office. In a statement to The Oregonian/OregonLive, Clackamas County Sheriff’s Sgt. Marcus Mendoza said the office is investigating the complaint to see if deputies followed policy. McDavid said she had also spoken with attorneys.

“I don’t intend to do this quietly,” McDavid said. “The force they put on a 12-year-old — my son’s eye is pretty banged up.”

McDavid said she is upset with how officers handled the situation and said they did not call her after apprehending her son. She said mall security also banned her son from the mall for a year for Monday’s incident.

McDavid said her son and a female friend were walking through Clackamas Town Center on Monday when they passed a group of girls fighting. McDavid said the pair tried to help break up the fight, and when the fight ended, security guards started yelling at the kids to leave the mall.

She said as her son was walking away, sheriff’s deputies showed up and told him to stop, but he kept walking. McDavid said her son told her he did not hear them. She said officers then grabbed his arms and pulled him to the ground.

Mendoza confirmed that deputies came to Clackamas Town Center after reports of two groups of kids physically fighting. He said he didn’t know why the fight started but said that one of the groups was also trying to fight with security staff, and an officer inside the mall told other deputies they might have probable cause to make an arrest for harassment.

He said as one group left the mall, officers arrived and told the group, which was outside, to stop walking. Mendoza said the only boy in the group did not comply, and officers tried to stop him from walking away by “placing him in an escort hold.” When he attempted to pull away, Mendoza said, officers put him on his stomach in the grass and handcuffed him.

McDavid said her son kept crying out to the officers, “I’m 12, I’m a minor.”

“He’s a young black boy — a tall young black boy — and he looks like he’s 16 or 17 years old,” she said. “I always tell him if he’s ever in contact with someone, to tell them he’s a minor,” she said. “You have to prepare young black boys for this world, unfortunately.”

Officers then released the boy. Mendoza said Clackamas Town Center security didn’t want to press charges but had the boy removed from the mall “due to this incident and other past negative contact by CTC.”

McDavid said the incident Mendoza referred to was in December, when her son and his cousin stole some shoelaces from Kohl’s.

“He won’t be doing that again,” she said. “But he wasn’t charged, no record.”

Mendoza said the incident would be referred to the juvenile department. On Tuesday, he said, the sheriff’s office was made aware of a formal complaint made by the boy’s mother.

McDavid said she and her son were terrified by the incident.

“If a child is screaming ‘I’m 12,’ at least let up," she said. “This wasn’t handled correctly.”

The incident drew the attention of state Rep. Janelle Bynum, whose district includes parts of Clackamas County. Hours after the incident occurred, Bynum posted a message to her Facebook page saying she had contacted Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts, and had both formally and informally requested information about the incident. On Thursday morning, Bynum said the sheriff’s office had still not responded to her with a statement, documents or footage of the incident.

Bynum said she was able to speak with the sheriff’s government relations liaison, and she was actively working with her. She said they would be holding a roundtable forum in a few weeks to discuss some of the issues raised by community members as a result of the incident.

In a Facebook message to The Oregonian/OregonLive, Bynum said she did not know the boy or his mother, but it caught her attention because it tapped into fears she has as a parent herself.

“When young children have encounters that could scar them for life that’s an issue for me,” she wrote. “I hope to push the Sheriff to understand that even though his team may not have killed this child with a bullet, his spirit may have been killed anyway. That’s what I’m fighting for — so that no one, and not just law enforcement, kills our children or their spirits.”

—Jayati Ramakrishnan; 503-221-4320; jramakrishnan@oregonian.com; @JRamakrishnanOR

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