A Springfield, Illinois man is suing the city after police officers accused him of having drugs when it was actually his daughter’s ashes.
Newly released bodycam footage shows Dartavius Barnes being handcuffed and placed into a squad car on April 6th, 2020. Barnes was pulled over for allegedly speeding and disregarding a stop sign. The video shows the man cooperating with law enforcement during the stop, exiting his car when instructed, and consenting to have the officers search his vehicle. Additionally, he informed the officers that he had marijuana in his car before they searched it.
However, Barnes became emotional when officers wrongly told him that a metal container in his vehicle tested positive for meth or ecstasy when it possessed the ashes of his 2-year-old daughter, Ta’Naja Barnes. Barnes begins to plead with the officers to return the urn to him.
“Give me that, bro. That’s my daughter. Please give me my daughter, bro. Put her in my hand, bro. Y’all are disrespectful, bro,” Barnes yells at the officers.
They eventually handed the urn over to Barnes’ father, who arrived on the scene and was visibly shaken by what had transpired. One officer says, “I’m just going to give him a notice to appear on the weed.”
Barnes has filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Springfield and the six officers involved. In the suit, he says that the deputies unlawfully tested the ashes without his consent and claims that they even “desecrated” his daughter’s ashes by spilling some while testing them.
A jury trial is set for next year.
Springfield Police told Dartavius Barnes that a capsule in his car tested positive for meth.
It was his daughter’s ashes in an urn. pic.twitter.com/Qobk7nBOfA
— Sawyer Hackett (@SawyerHackett) May 21, 2021
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