Mom wants ‘justice’ for ‘my baby boy’

NEW HAVEN — A sobbing Doreen Coleman, mother of Richard Cox Jr., who was seriously injured while being transported to the police station following an arrest, demanded justice in her first public appearance Tuesday.

“I want people to know, that is my baby boy, my baby son,” she said. “… We are going to get justice for him.” She asked for prayers for Cox’s full recovery.

The press conference in front of Superior Court included attorney Ben Crump, who has worked on numerous cases of police abuse of Black people, including George Floyd.

LaToya Boomer, Cox’s younger sister, said, “When we were younger, we would tell people we were twins because we do look alike and we wanted people to think that he was older,” she said.

“As far as Randy, he loves his community,” Boomer said. On June 19, Father’s Day and Juneteenth, “he was at a community block party on Lilac Street,” she said. “He was helping out with the event. He was cooking on the grill. He was overseeing the kids. And he was kind of doing the traffic control because there were no police there.”

Cox, known as Randy and R.R., was arrested at the party and charged with illegal possession of a firearm, among other counts. Police said he had a bottle of liquor in his hand and a gun in his waistband.

While Cox has not been convicted of a felony, according to the state judicial website, he has several convictions for third-degree assault, a misdemeanor, which disqualify him from being able to carry a weapon, according to his attorney, Jack O’Donnell.

At a press conference later Tuesday, Assistant Chief Karl Jacobson, nominated to be the next police chief, said a detective had told him Cox previously had been convicted of a felony.

After the arrest, Cox was taken in handcuffs to the police lockup in a transport van when Officer Oscar Diaz suddenly hit the brakes and Cox was thrown head-first against the front wall.

While he called for help and said he couldn’t move, Diaz and Sgt. Betsy Segui did not stop and wait for medical help, which is police protocol, but instead continued to the police station. After trying to get him to move, they dragged Cox out of the van by his feet and put him in a wheelchair.

He was then cuffed at the ankles and put in a cell. Three other officers who work in the detention area, as well as Diaz and Segui, have been placed on paid administrative leave while the state police conduct an investigation.

Boomer said she couldn’t watch the video. “I started watching the video and the treatment of him was a disgrace,” she said. “Where’s the first day of training, where’s the on-the-job training? Where’s the accountability? I want to know, where’s the person that sees what’s going on and says, ‘Maybe he’s not joking, maybe he’s not drunk, maybe he is in distress.’”

Instead, she said, the officers said, “‘No, you’re not even trying. Get up, roll over. Turn on your back.’ He’s saying ‘I can’t move.’” She called for the officers involved to be fired and arrested.

Boomer said her family has “pretty much lived in Newhallville our whole life.” Cox went to Lincoln Bassett School, Troup Middle School and James Hillhouse High School and was in the talented and gifted program.

“He’s in the community, he’s outside every day. He’s around,” Boomer said. “Yeah, he has been in trouble before. But that doesn’t mean you don’t give someone care because they’ve been in trouble before.”

Boomer said the van passed two hospitals on the way to the lockup and the ambulance hadn’t arrived at the Police Department when the van arrived.

Another sister, Laquavius LeGrant, said, “How did we get here? Why are we here right now? How does what was supposed to be a routine transport to jail turn into my brother being paralyzed by having his neck broken?”

Crump said of Cox’s family, “even though they are trying to keep the hope, Mama, they know the very daunting reality that this young man is facing,” that he may not walk again.

“Randy Cox is lying in that hospital bed, paralyzed from his chest down, because of the actions and inactions of the New Haven Police Department,” Crump said.

“I am here because when I look at that video, it shocks my conscience. And I believed when you all see the video it’s going to shock your conscience. The only question is, why when the police look at Randy Cox saying ‘I can’t move,’ why doesn’t it shock their conscience? … Why didn’t they use just an ounce, just an ounce of humanity?”