Calls for Quakertown police chief to resign grow after altercation leads to student protesters being arrested
It was supposed to be a peaceful protest, but it turned into a violent altercation with a Bucks County, Pennsylvania, police chief. Five high school students were arrested Friday and detained for at least four nights. Now, community members are calling for the chief to resign.
By Tuesday morning, people gathered outside the Bucks County courthouse in Doylestown to show their support for five minors who were arrested Friday.
"It was uncalled for," Lolly Hopwood, a member of Doylestown Action League, said. "The fact that these kids were held for so long is an absolute atrocity, and the fact that they're being charged with what they're being charged with is just horrible."
Police say roughly 50 students walked out of Quakertown Community High School on Friday as part of an anti-ICE protest. Students said after walking a few blocks, an altercation broke out between police and teenagers. On Friday, police said some students were throwing snowballs and kicking cars. Students told CBS News Philadelphia that everything escalated when a man wearing a brown jacket jumped out of his vehicle and started wrestling students to the ground.
"A guy in a brown outfit, apparently, he's the chief of Quakertown, he came in, bursting into the kids, hitting them, he grabbed one of the student, if you see the video, he grabbed a kid by the shirt," said Ashley Orellana, a 12th-grade student at Quakertown Community High School who witnessed the altercation.
It turned out the man in the brown jacket is Scott McElree, the Quakertown chief of police and borough manager. Some community members have since expressed outrage over the chief's actions, especially because he was dressed in plain clothes.
"My client that was thrown to the ground, if you see the video, when he was thrown to the ground, the police officer who did that started to yell at him, 'Do you know who that is? Do you know who that is?'" Donald Souders, an attorney representing a 16-year-old boy who was one of the five students arrested, said. "And you can hear and see my client say, 'I have no idea who that is.' That's in the moment."
Souders said a judge released the teen from custody Tuesday. He's been charged with aggravated assault, a felony, Souders said, which is enhanced when a police officer is involved.
CBS News Philadelphia is still working to learn if the other four teens were all released from custody.
Neither the borough nor the Quakertown Police Department is commenting at this time.
The Bucks County District Attorney's Office said it's aware of what happened Friday and is conducting an investigation into the police response.
