Former Philly cop charged with aggravated assault in beating of a mother during 2020 unrest

A former Philadelphia police officer was arrested on aggravated assault charges in connection with the beating of a 28-year-old mother, who was pulled from her vehicle by police during civil unrest in October 2020 and then separated from her toddler.

The charges against Darren Kardos, 42, follow an 18-month investigation launched after cell phone video captured the chaotic scene in West Philadelphia just after police had fatally shot a Black man in the neighborhood.

The footage showed a throng of officers swarming an SUV, bashing in the windows, pulling the driver and a passenger out of the vehicle, beating them, and then removing a child from the backseat.

The driver was Rickia Young, a Black home health-care aide from North Philadelphia who said she was trying to pick up her teenage nephew nearby, but was attacked by officers after inadvertently getting caught between police and agitators in the early-morning hours of Oct. 27, 2020.

Kardos, a seven-year veteran of the 19th District, was one of two officers fired last spring after an internal investigation into the incident determined he used excessive force, including physical abuse with a baton.

District Attorney Larry Krasner said Thursday that video shows Kardos used his metal baton to bash in Young’s car windows, and then pulled her out of the car by her hair, “after which she was struck by fists, batons, and a number of unknown objects.”

Krasner also said Kardos “made claims about the victim’s actions that were not corroborated by video evidence.”

Kardos turned himself in last week and was released on bail. He is being represented by the Defender Association, which did not respond to a request for comment.

Attempts to reach Kardos by phone were unsuccessful. The Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 declined to comment.

Public posts on Kardos’ Facebook page showed he disapproved of the protests that swept the nation in May 2020 following the Minneapolis police murder of George Floyd. In one post, Kardos railed against antifa, and in another, he wrote that his Facebook followers should unfriend him if they have “empathy for the rioters or protesters.” He also shared a video of a man who suggested protesters in the streets “be ran over.”

The Police Department’s Internal Affairs unit investigated 19 officers in connection with the incident, said spokesperson Sgt. Eric Gripp. Aside from the two officers including Kardos who were dismissed, one officer was suspended for 30 days by Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw, and two officers received “command-level reprimands,” he said.

Eleven officers are currently awaiting disciplinary hearings, and one officer who was awaiting such a hearing resigned in October, Gripp said. Two officers were cleared by internal affairs.

» READ MORE: A Philadelphia mother and her son are traumatized after police smashed their SUV, beat her, and separated them during West Philly unrest.

Krasner said his office could not comment on whether the investigation is ongoing or if more officers will face charges. He said investigators have not determined if body-worn camera footage from the incident will be publicly released due to its sensitive content and the potential for the case to go to trial.

“The law applies equally to everyone, and this office is going to be even-handed, follow the facts, and apply the law to police in the same way that we’ve applied the law to everyone,” Krasner said. “I don’t think there’s a good, hardworking, decent police officer in the United States, let alone Philadelphia, who thinks it’s a great thing to brutalize a mother who is simply trying to comply with police commands. To separate her child, leave her wondering for hours what has happened to her child, while a national organization essentially tries to malign and defame them.”

The city in September paid Young $2 million, and both Mayor Jim Kenney and Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw condemned the actions of some of the officers. But the Police Department has never offered an explanation for why police descended on the vehicle.

Young said she had driven to West Philadelphia to pick up her 16-year-old nephew at a friend’s house when she reached a part of Chestnut Street that was barricaded by police. She tried to make a U-turn, she said, but was blocked by people throwing bottles and debris.

After she was pulled from the SUV and beaten, she said, she was detained in a police van, driven to police headquarters, then taken to the hospital and handcuffed to the bed. She was never charged with a crime in connection with the incident.

Her injuries included bruising, large cuts, and a swollen trachea, she said. A lawyer representing her nephew, who was in the passenger seat, said the teenager required surgery to repair shattered bones in his hand.

Young said an officer had told her that her son would be taken to the Department of Human Services, Philadelphia’s child welfare agency. Young’s mother said she found him hours later with police in a cruiser near DHS offices in Center City.

A female officer was at some point photographed clutching the boy. The next day, the image was shared on social media by the National FOP, which posted an inaccurate caption saying that police had saved the child. It deleted the picture after an Inquirer reporter asked about it.

The Police Department’s Internal Affairs Bureau has not determined who took the picture. Young filed a lawsuit against the National FOP, which is pending.

The activity in October came after two Philadelphia police officers fatally shot 27-year-old Walter Wallace Jr., who was wielding a knife and lunging toward police. His family had called 911 requesting assistance for Wallace, who they said was experiencing a mental health crisis.

The investigation into Wallace’s death remains ongoing. The city paid his family $2.5 million to settle claims over his killing.