Paralyzed Columbus teen arrested in wheelchair on old Florida warrant
Photo: WBNS (10TV Columbus, file photo)Columbus police arrested a quadriplegic teenager in his powered wheelchair on an outstanding warrant from Florida and took him to the Franklin County Juvenile Detention Center — the same place where he was paralyzed in 2023.
Police removed Damarion Allen, who uses a powered wheelchair and is medically fragile, from his Columbus home on Nov. 5, according to city dispatch records. Police initially called for a transport van, but Allen was eventually taken by fire department medics to the detention center.
That same day, a magistrate ordered that Allen not be held in the detention center because of his medical conditions.
Officers had gone to the house looking for a suspect in a home invasion case, police said. While there, they discovered that Allen had an outstanding warrant on a case outside Columbus. "Once that warrant was verified, he was taken into custody," police officials said in a statement.
"The warrant relates to an allegation from when he was only 12 years old," said Kaela King, who represents Allen and his family in a personal injury lawsuit against Franklin County employees. "Damarion's condition was easy to find out, and officers should have known about it before they arrived. They didn't, and they mishandled the arrest from start to finish. They put Damarion's life at risk and put his family through hours of fear and stress. The warrant has since been recalled."
King added: "Either officers aren't trained to handle these situations, or they don't care to. The city should be alarmed either way."
Columbus police denied a public records request for the body-worn camera footage of the arrest, saying it represents an investigatory record.
Allen was paralyzed from the chest down in May 2023, when he was 15. He fought with another teenager at the Franklin County juvenile center despite orders that he be kept in medical isolation and separated from the other boy. When the two teens fought, Allen crashed to the floor, landing on his head. Guards who rushed in scooped him up, dragged him down a set of steps and dropped him, face first. He begged to be put on his back, complaining that his neck hurt and he couldn't walk.
Four months after the injury, Allen and his family sued two Franklin County detention center employees, Talia Sumney and Latashia Lewis. The 10th District Court of Appeals on Jan. 14 rejected the argument that the two employees should be given immunity for their on-the-job actions the day Allen was paralyzed. In October, the Ohio Supreme Court declined to take up the case. The case is now pending before Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Chris Brown.
Franklin County terminated Lewis' employment three months after the fight, during her probationary period. Sumney was not disciplined.
An investigation by the Cincinnati Enquirer, Columbus Dispatch, Akron Beacon Journal and Canton Repository published in November 2023 found juvenile detention centers and youth prisons fail to protect and rehabilitate troubled teens. Allen's story was part of that investigation.
Allen is presumed innocent of the Florida allegation unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
Sources: The Columbus Dispatch, "Paralyzed Columbus teen arrested in his wheelchair" (Nov. 13, 2026, full text verified); The Cincinnati Enquirer, "Paralyzed Ohio teen arrested in wheelchair on warrant from Florida" (Nov. 13, 2026, full text verified).
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