An officer at the Aurora Detention Center is accused of breaking a man’s arm while restraining him after the man punched another officer as he was being booked into the jail, city officials said Friday.
Officer Christopher Freitas, 41, is facing a felony assault charge for excessive force while on duty Oct. 6.
The encounter started that morning when 28-year-old Austin Young was being processed for jail intake, Aurora officials said in a news release.
Young was arrested on suspicion of drug possession and arrest warrants from other jurisdictions, jail records show.
Surveillance videos released by the city show an officer grasping Young’s shoulder and arm and starting to lift him out of his chair when Young punched him. Young is then tackled to the ground as a group of officers try to restrain him, and he continued to fight back for at least five minutes, the videos show.
Officers used a Taser on Young at least 16 times, sprayed him with pepper spray and punched him in the face while trying to get him to turn over, according to the videos.
Freitas pulled and then wrenched Young’s right arm against the cell door during the altercation, and then stood on his left arm with both feet for about a minute.
Young was taken to the hospital and required surgery to restore blood flow to his broken right arm, city officials said.
After the altercation, Freitas picked up a body-worn camera that fell off another officer and stuck it in his pocket, where it recorded him discussing the incident with other jail staff.
“I was literally standing on his arm; that was the only way to get him to stop moving,” Freitas said. “All my weight, 170 pounds, standing on his (expletive) arm.”
A few minutes later, Freitas can be heard saying he “shouldn’t have held back.”
“I was gonna crack him… I was gonna punch him, but I was, ‘Oh, how is that going to look on camera,’ So I just went for the grab, but I wanted to (expletive) punch him,” Freitas said.
Freitas and other officers can also be heard attributing Young’s strength to being “crazy,” and stating that jail staff deal with abuse almost every night.
Detention center officials immediately reported the incident and requested an Aurora Police Department investigation, city officials said.
After reviewing the police department’s findings, the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office decided to pursue second-degree assault charges against both Freitas and Young.
“The city, which includes the Court Administration Department, takes every accusation of excessive force seriously,” city officials said in a statement. “Mistreatment of any detainee is unacceptable.”
Freitas started working at the jail in October 2023 and is now suspended without pay. He is not a sworn police officer, city officials said.
Information about his next court appearance was not immediately available.
Update 2:25 p.m. Dec. 12, 2025: This story has been updated to clarify that the officer stood on one of the inmate’s arms, but broke the other.
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