Cop suspended for slamming handcuffed Black youth on cruiser's hood

'I’m a kid' the youth said through bloodied lips. 'You’re not a kid right now,' Sgt. Travis Sauer replied.

The Seattle Police Department suspended Sergeant Travis Sauer for violently slamming a young Black man’s face on the hood of a police cruiser, splitting his lip open, according to a disciplinary report released last Friday.

On Aug. 7, 2024, Sgt. Sauer was one of several officers dispatched to a break-in at a business. The owners reported that a recently terminated employee was breaking windows and vandalizing property.

Officers Anthony Ducre and Kame Spencer arrived first and contacted two young men. One of them fled, and Ducre chased after him until he caught up and ordered the youth to the ground. The man complied.

Meanwhile, Spencer ordered the other youth, wearing a gray sweatshirt, to the ground, but he refused. She grabbed him by his arm and placed him in handcuffs with Ducre’s help. Spencer took him to the ground after he pushed back against her, but eventually, she regained control and started walking him to a nearby police cruiser.

On the way, the youth in the gray sweatshirt leaned back. Spencer yelled, “Walk right!” The man stumbled, and Sauer rushed up to grab him. Sauer snatched the man away from Spencer and slammed his body down on the hood of the patrol vehicle.

‘You’re hurting me’

“Visibly shaking” with rage, Sauer screamed, “Stay here!” The young man cried out, with blood on his lips, “I’m a kid.”

“You’re not a kid right now. You wanted to play like you were being a big kid,” Sauer replied. When the youth told Sauer, “You’re hurting me. Sauer said, “You were fighting with my officer.”

The young man denied this, and Sauer said, “Well, then you should’ve complied.”

Sauer wrote in his force report that he believed the man was attempting to headbutt Spencer and flee, but this was “unsupported by the video,” the Office of Police Accountability wrote in the report.

“While [his] behavior might be construed as noncompliant, it did not constitute an assault,” according to the report. The OPA added that his capacity to resist was “considerably diminished” by the fact that he was handcuffed and Spencer was physically restraining him from behind.

In his force report, Sauer wrote: “I ran the suspect’s legs and hips into the side of the patrol car while applying pressure to his upper back, causing the suspect to fall forward onto the hood of the vehicle…After landing on the hood of the car, the suspect’s lower lip on the left side was noticeably swollen, and there was obvious blood in his mouth and around his teeth.”

Spencer and Ducre wrote in their reports that they saw blood on the young man’s mouth before Sauer threw him against the hood, but OPA notes that it “was unable to validate” those claims using the video.

OPA found that there was no evidence that the young man was preparing to assault Spencer. Moreover, if the handcuffed youth had “posed a significant threat or was assaultive,” Sauer should’ve used a team approach by enlisting any of the five officers who were on the scene.

Instead, he acted “unilaterally by forcefully and unnecessarily” pulling the detainee away from Spencer.

While the OPA recommended a suspension of one to three days, newly confirmed Chief Shon Barnes issued only a one-day suspension. Hired in 2006, Sgt. Travis Sauer made $185,557, including $34,835 in overtime.