Melbourne police stomp: father calls police behavior ‘disgusting’

The heartbroken family of the Melbourne man hit by a police car and then trampled on has opened up about pushing him into the firing line of what they call the “disgusting” brutality of the Victoria police.

Analyzing Australia’s A Current Affair show, Tim Atkins’ father Glenn said: “Seeing a policeman and the car run over him, trample on my son’s head. It’s disgusting.

“The way he was treated in any shape or form. That’s not right, that’s violence.”

Glenn Atkins and Tim’s brother, Dylan, were speaking two days after images of confrontation appeared on the head of Tim being trampled during an arrest by five officers in Melbourne on Sunday afternoon.

A senior officer of the Victoria Police Critical Incident Response Team was suspended from duty on Monday.

A second video, shot moments earlier, showed Tim being run over by a police car before the dramatic arrest.

The events unfolded after Tim, who suffers from bipolar disorder, sought help, but was told there were no mental health beds in his area.

When the father of three went to the emergency department at Northern Hospital in the north Melbourne suburb of Epping, he was told the same thing.

Dylan Atkins described what his brother went through before the incidents with police on a street in Epping at around 4:10 p.m. Sunday.

“He wanted help. My brother desperately needed help. We were rejected, but how many other people were also rejected?” Dylan told Channel 9.

“Tim waited about 20 hours. His patience ran out.

“Because of what was going through, going through your mind.

“If you have 400 thoughts, he has 10,000 and he goes fast and thinks,

“His mind is racing, and running, and overthinking, he’s crying to you.

“It’s difficult to talk to someone on the phone. It’s a bit nerve-wracking for him.

“You know, it must be a long time for anyone.

“If you had a broken arm, sitting in a room on a bed and you had no answer, wondering what’s going on, for 20 hours, and your broken arm was not repaired, would you feel distressed?

“I would like.”

Distraught and dazed, Tim had had enough and ran from the hospital to the street where he was hit by a police car and then surrounded by officers.

His father Glenn is traumatized by what may have happened to his son when he was hit by the police vehicle.

“He could have died in the wrong place,” Atkins said.

“If he had been hit on the temple, he would be dead by now.

“Even if he was a criminal, which he is not, he never hurt anyone, how can someone do that and not lose his job you know?”

When Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Neil Paterson suspended an officer and announced an investigation into the incident, Tim Atkins was admitted to hospital and slipped into a coma.

He woke up from the coma Tuesday morning, but his family said they do not remember what happened and described his treatment of the coma as “extreme.”

“They didn’t need to go to what they did. It’s just horrible,” Dylan Atkins said.

On Monday, Deputy Commissioner Neil Paterson said the footage showed “improper use of force by a member of police in connection with the kicking or stomping of the head of the man involved in that incident.”

“I have also formed the opinion that the use of force when using a police vehicle with the man involved in that incident is concerning,” he said.

The Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC) will conduct a criminal investigation into what happened in a move confirmed by IBAC Commissioner Robert Redlich.

“Given the potentially serious nature of this incident, IBAC has determined that it is in the public interest to investigate this matter independently,” he said.