Kid tapes cop smashing car window, dragging man away after tasering him

A 14-year-old boy's videotape of an Indiana cop smashing an ax though a vehicle window, shooting the passenger with a stun gun, and ripping him from the vehicle has become the subject of an excessive force lawsuit.

Monday's lawsuit [PDF] is among the most recent in a wave of police encounters gone awry that have been captured on video and resulted in legal action. The incident was filmed two weeks ago in Hammond, Indiana, and it started with a motorist being stopped and pulled over for allegedly not wearing a seatbelt.

As two brothers sat in the back seat, one seven and the other 14, an officer is seen on tape demanding that the passenger show some identification. He has none and disputes that he needs to produce it. One of two officers then demands that he get out of the car. All the while, his girlfriend is overheard on her mobile phone talking to a 911 operator, fearing for their safety. The teen is filming the incident.

"How can you say they are not going to hurt you? People are getting shot by the police!" the woman, Lisa Mahone, is overheard saying on the phone.

In the background, the officer asks front-seat passenger Jamal Jones, "Are you going to open the door?"

The next thing the three-minute tape shows is a cop smashing the passenger window with an ax, stunning Jones, and ripping him from the vehicle. The woman, mother of the two children in the backseat, starts screaming, as does the younger child.

According to the federal court lawsuit, pieces of glass hit all four people in the car, including the two kids.

"The officer used the tool to smash the front passenger window of the vehicle, striking Jamal in the right shoulder and causing shards of glass to strike Jamal, Lisa, Joseph (14), and JaNiya (7)," the Indiana federal court suit alleges.

Hammond Police spokesman Lt. Richard Hoyda spoke with CNN about the incident. "The first officer saw the passenger inside the vehicle drop his left hand behind the center console inside of the vehicle," he said. "Fearing for officer safety, the first officer ordered the passenger to show his hands and then repeatedly asked him to exit the vehicle."