A bystander recorded a Saratoga County Sheriff’s officer tackling a teenage boy in a Target department store in Clifton Park on April 18.

His mother, Chante Ware, said her son was a victim of racial profiling and was told he was accused of stealing. The youngster was not charged, but his 17-year-old sister was charged with resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer for attempting to defend him.

The teen’s sister attempted to warn the officer about his autistic condition, but the officer refused to listen and continued to arrest the youngster forcibly.

The incident escalated, and the cop was hit with a soap dish by the teen’s sister while trying to defend him against the arresting officer.

The mother of two, Chante Ware, shared how frightening the altercation was for her two children, a 14-year-old son and 17-year-old daughter, who were arrested without a guardian being present.

“Mentally and emotionally, I’m not OK, but for my children, I have to be strong because I am their voice,” Ware said.

During the arrest, Ware was down the block from the Clifton Park store when she received a call from her daughter saying police were arresting her son.

“At the moment, I knew that whatever had happened, it was bad because of the way she was crying,” Ware said. “My anxiety went from two to one million.”

“I’ve seen the video, the first part. I can’t bring myself past seeing my son’s face to continue to watch the rest,” Ware said.

The arrest was initiated after police were notified the boy was possibly stealing from the store, but later Target employees shared that they just wanted the child removed from the premises. A security team member called deputies “after a guest entered the store who had previously threatened physical violence against one of our team members,” a Target representative told Spectrum News 1.

Saratoga County officers arrested the 17-year-old girl and charged her with assault for hitting the deputy in the face with a soap dish.

The 14-year-old teen with autism was not arrested.

“Why are my kids being treated like this?” Ware said. “He’s [officer] like, ‘We were told they were suspects in a larceny.’ I said, ‘if they were suspects in a larceny, they would have been arrested already. They had money. My son had his wallet in his hand.”

The incident was caught on video by a woman named Tracy Sangare.

“I didn’t know what to do because I wanted to call for help,” Sangare said. “But who do you call for help when it’s the police harming the people.”

When Sangare saw the sheriff’s car arrive, she walked back into the store after loading her car into the parking lot.

“As soon as I saw the police officer with his hands on the child, I pulled out my phone and started videoing, and I turned to the manager, and he said, ‘We just wanted them to leave,'” Sangare said.

Sangare tweeted she could hear the young boy telling the officer, “I have money to pay. Why are you grabbing me?”

“He looked terrified, and she looked like she was just protecting her brother,” Sangare said.

Ware hopes the officers involved will be handled but fears the trauma on her son will not be undone.

“He has issues dealing with authority now. Those that he once trusted, he will no longer trust,” Ware said. “There’s different levels of the spectrum, and people should really be familiar with autism itself. People walk around with autism everyday, and you will not know.”

Officers arrived to the Ware family’s home and “ransacked” it days after the event, according to the Saratoga chapter of Black Lives Matter.

For the Ware family’s safety, the organization set up a GoFundMe fundraiser to move them from their home.

“The family’s home was ransacked by police this morning, and the young girl is being targeted. The mother and children no longer feel safe in their home and would like to move into a hotel. Anything helps, so please donate and share,” The organization said.

$13,600 out of the $20,000 goal has been raised in one week.

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