ACLU sues Warren, police officers over 2022 incident

WARREN — The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan has filed a federal lawsuit against several Warren police officers and the city on behalf of a family alleging a man’s rights were violated.

Early on Dec. 13, 2022, Warren police stopped Christopher Gibson. According to his mother, Alwanda Gibson, he had spent the night before with her cousin, who had cancer.

In a video released by the ACLU, Warren officers tell Christopher Gibson to relax. They place him in handcuffs as he says he’s worried about his family.

A press release from the Warren Police Department states the department received a 911 call reporting suspicious behavior.

The video then cuts to Christopher Gibson in the back of a police car, where he states, “I was (expletive) going through it.”

“You picked the wrong city to be going through it in,” the officer is heard saying.

According to Alwanda Gibson, her son was diagnosed with schizophrenia and psychosis when he was 19. She claims he was having a mental health crisis when he was arrested.

Christopher Gibson was arrested on four open felony warrants for identity theft, larceny and other financial crimes, according to the police department.

“The arrest was without incident as the video clearly shows,” the police press release states.

Alwanda Gibson said when she called the Warren Police Department, she was hung up on. When she called back and spoke to a supervisor, she told them her son was having a mental health crisis and needed help.

“The officer assured me that when my son arrived at their police station, if there was something wrong with him, if they noticed that he was having a mental health crisis, that they would get him some help,” she said.

Bodycam footage released by the ACLU shows a Warren Police officer attempting to get Christopher Gibson to leave his cell to be taken to the interview room. Christopher Gibson can be seen standing on the other side of the cell door, refusing to leave.

Mark Fancher, a racial justice attorney with the ACLU, said he could not comply with the officer’s instructions due to his alleged mental health crisis.

“He was already having a mental health episode, a crisis, and now he had been placed in this cell where he was uncertain of his fate,” he said.

Fancher said officers triggered other reactions from him, which led to him biting one of the officers.

“At this point, as far as they were concerned, he was someone who had committed an assault against an officer, and from then on, he was treated as someone who was a danger to the police officers, whether they really believed it or not,” he said.

The press release states the bite drew blood and that the officer required medical attention.

“After this attack, Gibson refused to comply with even simple commands that were necessary to get him transported to a facility equipped with medical and mental health professionals,” the press release states.

Bodycam footage then shows Christopher Gibson in a different cell, again refusing to comply with officers. The video then cuts to him sitting on the floor and the door being opened. Tasers are then deployed against him.

The press release from the department states they used less-than-lethal options to ensure safety while successfully getting Christopher Gibson handcuffed and transported to a county facility.

Alwanda Gibson said she continued to call the department for three days. She was told they did not have her son, she said.

“I thought they murdered my son,” she said.

The video from the ACLU states Christopher Gibson was taken to the hospital, where he was being treated for severe physical injuries.

“The condition he was diagnosed with, among other things, was rhabdomyolysis, which is the condition that results from extreme pressure on the body,” Fancher said. “The video shows multiple officers applying their full body weight to him and causing these extreme injuries that it took more than a week for him to stabilize from while he was hospitalized.”

The press release from the Warren Police Department disputes that.

“We dispute the claim that Mr. Gibson was seriously injured by the Warren Police Department or inside the Warren Police Department jail,” it states. “In fact, the lawsuit claims Gibson sustained injury when removed from a transport car in the garage of the county facility. This removal was not by Warren Police, but another department’s designated Cell Extraction Team who had been informed by us of Gibson’s self-reported mental health issues and abusive behavior.”

The lawsuit, filed in federal court Aug. 13, alleges that the department “has a history of physically and otherwise abusing persons they have arrested.” It cites three incidents between 2021 and now.

While the lawsuit is asking courts to mandate a new national policing standard that requires social workers or mental health professionals to respond to calls of anyone self-reporting a mental health crisis, the press release states that trained police are the only first-responders available in these situations.

“... the reality is that trained police are the only available first responder in these rapidly-changing, extremely dangerous situations,” the release states. “It is also the reality that mental health resources are limited in Michigan and nationally, as anyone with a loved one suffering with mental illness knows, which limitations equally apply to police agencies.”

In 2025, Christopher Gibson was charged and convicted of felonious assault involving a Warren police officer. Court records show he is scheduled for a final pretrial hearing in October.

The press release states the department is confident that the lawsuit will be dismissed.

“We believe the complete video record and other evidence will demonstrate here that Gibson engaged in a series of very intentional, violent assaults and other resistive actions against police while in custody,” the release states. “State and federal courts consistently hold that police can and must police in such a situation to protect life and limb, including by use of reasonable force when necessary.”