London police under fire after teen is left with severe injuries during traffic stop

An investigation is under way after a 15-year-old suffered severe injuries when he was slammed off his bike during a police stop near London.

Terrell Decosta Jones-Burton was knocked unconscious after he was allegedly “charged” by an officer as he cycled along the road near his home in Bermondsey, south London.

Dramatic footage shows an officer pursing Terrell then “rugby tackle” him from his bike before the teenager’s head smashes into the doorway of a chicken shop.

Police say officers were responding to reports of a mobile phone robbery 20 minutes earlier. The female victim had given officers a description of the suspect who fled on a bicycle.

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Terrell’s family is fighting back saying he is innocent and a victim of police brutality. Terrell’s mother posted an image on social media of her son in King’s College hospital with a bloody face showing him with a split lip.

His family said the 15-year-old also suffered broken teeth, a broken jawbone and bleeding on the brain after having a seizure in the ambulance taking him to hospital.

Ms Jones, 35, a carer, said her son, a Year 11 Bacon’s College student, had not been in trouble with police before.

‘Police brutality on young black boys has to stop,’ Terrell Jones-Burton’s mother said

Writing on Facebook, she said the teenager “is not a thug” and had been on his way home from local shops with friends when he was approached by officers accusing him of involvement in a mugging.

“He has no criminal record and no involvement with the police,” Ms Jones wrote, using the hashtag #JusticeForTerrell.

The mother says she had spoken to her eldest son by phone minutes before the incident occurred. She said as soon as she got in the ambulance, it looked like his face was shattered.

“I get in the ambulance and all I can see is his face just shattered, just completely disfigured. He looked like a dead person, that’s how bad he looked, Jones said, “I almost didn’t recognise him. I burst into tears.”

“He was rushing to get home so he wouldn’t be grounded for the next week. They got out of the car and slammed him against the shop, she added.

“It’s outrageous. He looks like a grown man, but he’s my little boy. It was a case of mistaken identity.”

Witnesses described the moment when Terrell was approached by police around 9:27pm on Southwark Park Road.

Witness Bogdan Sadowski, 52, said the officer was very aggressive.

“The boy’s head slammed into the door and he was out cold. I thought he was dead.”

An IPCC spokesman said they are now investigating the incident.

“The Met made a mandatory referral to the IPCC which is now investigating the incident. IPCC investigators were deployed to the scene and attended post incident procedures.”

According to reports, the incident comes as the Met is facing a series of controversies after the deaths of young black men who died after being stopped by police.

Five officers are facing a misconduct investigation after Edson Da Costa, 25, died in hospital in June after he was stopped in drugs search. A post mortem found a number of packages lodged in his throat.

Weeks later Rashan Charles, 20, died after being chased by police and restrained on the floor of a shop in Dalston. A package was also removed form his airway.