Outrage! Alleged Computer Glitch Sends 6 Cops With Guns Drawn After 16 Year Old Driver In Indiana (picture)

A hard copy  of this newspaper says: the police computer said this teen was allegedly driving a stolen vehicle. Not so.ED

More than a week after police aimed their guns at her 16-year-old son in a high school parking lot, Tracee Lutes is still trying to put the pieces together.

There’s so much that’s still unclear about that afternoon, she said. But what is clear is that it started with what law enforcement officials refer to as a “high-risk traffic stop.”

Her son, Evan, summed it up in a tweet: “Starting my year off by getting pulled over by 8 cops, being hand cuffed, and being at 
gun point … #FreeLutes.”

Evan was on his way to basketball practice at Bloomington High School South on New Year’s Day. It was after an “abrupt” turn into a neighborhood when Sgt. Chad Lierschran the plate number, 726HAL, on the black 2005 Buick Rainier, 
according to the deputy report.

The return on the number indicated that the vehicle was reported stolen out of Gary. As Liersch followed the vehicle, arriving in the high school parking lot, dispatch informed him that they, too, believed the vehicle was stolen when the plate information was fed to a police database.

“He was under the impression this driver was trying to evade him,” Monroe County Sheriff Brad Swain said.

Due to the apparent nature of the stop, with Liersch believing the vehicle was stolen, he requested backup and proceeded to carry out a high-risk traffic stop, according to the report.

A high-risk traffic stop, also known as a felony traffic stop, is when the responding officer has concern that the driver or occupants of the vehicle have committed a serious crime. A simple Internet search on a high-risk traffic stop bears images of scenarios depicting drivers with their hands in the air, some even on their knees or lying face down, and police with weapons at the ready.

Moments later, another officer arrived on the scene, according to the report. And then eventually seven more. In a high-risk traffic stop, it’s protocol that each officer has his or her gun drawn, Swain said.

Evan Lutes was asked to remove the keys from the ignition, place them on the roof of the car and show his hands through the window.

The deputies realized their mistake as the 16-year-old stood in handcuffs — the vehicle had not been stolen, and here stood a high school sophomore in handcuffs and at gunpoint. MOREHERE