An 18-year-old Newark High School graduate thrown to the ground and arrested by University of Delaware Police last month will no longer face charges, according to the Delaware Department of Justice.
Mohammed Sanogo was arrested June 15, less than an hour after graduation ended at the university’s Bob Carpenter Center, and later charged with reckless driving and resisting arrest.
Now those charges have been dropped after extensive review by the state Department of Justice. The state examined body camera and surveillance footage, talked to university police and had Sanogo attend a “Department of Justice-sanctioned course” last week, according to a letter submitted to the clerk of court.
UD released video of the arrest Thursday, which includes surveillance footage from a building and body camera footage. It’s the first time the video, which spans more than 22 minutes, has been made public since the June 15 incident.
“On July 27, the Office of Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings filed documentation communicating that a resolution had been reached in the case, with Mr. Sanogo accepting responsibility for his actions,” UD stated on its police website.
Why the state Department of Justice dropped charges
Court records read that the state DOJ is “satisfied” that Sanogo now “understands how his actions that evening contributed to a dangerous situation.” A hearing had previously been scheduled for Thursday morning.
“Prosecuting Mr. Sanogo would not advance the cause of justice or public safety, and it is the State’s strong belief that a measured resolution is in the larger community’s best interest,” state prosecutor Daniel Logan wrote in a letter to the court’s clerk.
The arrest spurred reaction throughout the community, with eyewitness accounts and videos calling into question the validity of the charges and the actions of the police officers that made the arrest.
Sanogo, a 4.0 GPA student at Newark High looking to study at the University of Maryland, received outpourings of support for his character from friends and community members since the incident. Forty-one letters of support were written to the state, court records state.
The Christina school board unanimously voted to move its graduations off campus last month, as UD’s arrest of its student and the communication afterward has soured relations with the school district.
The university didn’t notify the Christina School District about the arrest until around four days later.
Moreover, accounts of the incident from UD, witnesses and the arrest warrant don’t all tell the same story.
COMMUNITY WEIGHS IN:Voices speaking out on violent student arrest spotlight silence from UD
Conflicting accounts: Do we know what happened?
Under an hour after the event had officially ended, Sanogo and a group of friends were leaving the UD parking lot after taking photos. According to the arrest warrant, police officers then became aware of three cars in the lot that were “driving unsafely.”
One of those cars was Sanogo’s. Officers also observed “passengers sitting outside of the passenger side windows while the cars were in motion,” per the warrant. Police told them to leave the premises.
Video released by UD Thursday spotlights a car circling through the parking lot. That car was not Sanogo’s. Sanogo was in his car when police came over and asked the parked cars to leave.
Body camera footage from one of the two officers that walked up to the cars shows Sanogo leaving the parking spot, and a screech is heard coming from his car as he turns towards the exit.
“My brother said the rear of Momo’s car skidded a little bit when he pressed the gas,” Ali Aidel, a friend of Sanogo’s who left the parking lot in front of him, told Delaware Online/The News Journal. “It’s a rear-wheel drive car, you know, it just happened. But I couldn’t hear it.”
Waiting at a light to exit the lot, witness and body camera video both show trucks boxing in Sanogo. The university hasn’t provided any clarity or additional information on the multiple trucks that prevented Sanogo from exiting the parking lot.
At that point, officers asked Sanogo to exit his vehicle, which is when the university claims he “revved the engine and put the vehicle in reverse.”
Rear dash camera footage provided to Delaware Online/The News Journal shows Sanogo at the red light, surrounded by trucks in front of and beside him. When the light turns green, the trucks do not move, thus boxing Sanogo in. Footage released by UD Thursday also depicts the trucks around Sanogo’s car.
When asked back in June by the school district to provide body camera footage or video from surrounding buildings, UD told the board members that body cam videos were too grainy and building footage was not going to be provided at that time.
Christina board member Alethea Smith-Tucker said that in a school district meeting with UD the week after the incident, the university only referenced that a DelDOT truck was behind Sanogo, and not that there were any trucks in front of or beside him.
She said she’s “concerned about the lack of clarity (from UD) that Mohammed was boxed in.” To her, the surrounding trucks could certainly explain a sense of “heightened awareness and fear” in Sanogo.
Videos from multiple witnesses then show Sanogo picked up by an officer and slammed onto the ground.
That force used by university police in placing Sanogo under arrest has contrasted with what the university told Christina in last month’s meeting, board members say.
Christina school board members said that UD described it as Sanogo being “laid” onto the ground and “placed in mulch.”
SCHOOL TAKES ACTION:Christina School District cuts tie with University of Delaware after student’s arrest
UD has not answered whether there’s an internal investigation into the actions of its officers.
In a statement published with the release of the video footage, UD said it “has stated and continues to maintain that UD police officers acted appropriately in addressing behavior that posed a risk to public safety.” It did note that it will “continue its review of this situation to look for learning opportunities.”
Abdurahman Hasdhallah, a friend of Sanogo’s, was present before and during the arrest.
“He was freaking out, he was getting scared, and I was trying to tell him: ‘Calm down. Momo, calm down,’” Hasdhallah said, knowing Sanogo’s asthma also was making it hard for him to breathe after being thrown into the grass.
The university said the teen was “continuing to resist.” Ultimately, Sanogo was placed under arrest, then held until 4 a.m. before being released on $200 bail.
Eyes remain on the University of Delaware as calls for more administration and police accountability continue.
UD provided Delaware Online/The News Journal with a statement following the news of charges being dropped.
“The core of the University’s mission rests on a principled belief in the power of education to make a positive impact,” a portion of the statement reads. “As such, we wish Mr. Sanogo well in pursuing his future goals and endeavors.”
Local and national voices speak out
Ever since the details surrounding the arrest were made public last month, a number of community members, friends and national advocates have spoke out in support of Sanogo, with many also questioning potential racial and religious motivations from the university.
UD has vehemently denied claims that the incident was an instance of racial or religious discrimination or excessive police force, saying it “rejects any and all allegations that the UD Police Department officers acted with racial or religious bias,” in a statement from June 21.
Christina board member Naveed Baqir said at a board meeting last month that “it was a blatant attempt by the University of Delaware to whitewash the whole incident by flatly refusing to even acknowledge … that there was any religious aspect involved.”
Baqir also told Delaware Online/The News Journal that UD’s 22-minute video compilation — which partly includes a voiceover of a UD official — is “carefully crafted” and “led to more questions than it answers.”
“The edited video shows dishonesty of UD to piece together an unrelated party’s reckless actions as a reason behind the decision to arrest Mohammed,” Baqir wrote, referencing the video’s focus on a car speeding through the parking lot that Sanogo was not driving.
Nekima Levy Armstrong, a civil rights leader who formerly served as president of the Minneapolis NAACP, told Delaware Online/The News Journal earlier this month that the impact of the arrest could have long-lasting effects for Sanogo.
“The physical harm and the emotional trauma will likely live with him for the rest of his life,” Levy Armstrong said. “Not to mention the potential impacts to his college career and his professional career.”
“No young person, especially an innocent young person should have to experience that.”
Kelly Powers covers race, culture and equity for the USA TODAY Network’s Northeast Region and Delaware Online, with a focus on education. Contact her at kepowers@gannett.com or (231) 622-2191, and follow her on Twitter @kpowers01.
Contact Konner Metz atkmetz@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @konner_metz.
