MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – A 14-year-old boy was reportedly playing rough with a friend in Miami Beach when police approached the teens and ordered them to stop.

When cops asked Tremaine McMillian to point out his mother, they say the boy reacted in a way that justified being choked and slammed to the ground. McMillan gave the officers “dehumanizing stares” and clenched his fists in a threatening manner.

In juvenile court on Tuesday (May 28), McMillan’s family said that the officers’ claims were wrong as the boy was said to be feeding his six-month-old puppy with a bottle at the time. McMillian’s mother, Maurissa Holmes, captured the violent arrest of her son on a cell phone video camera. Police assert they approached McMillan after they saw him slam another boy into the sand, but the teenager says the cops came up to him on an ATV and slapped a puppy out of his hand. Miami-Dade Police Detective Alvaro Zabaleta said that McMillian’s supposed actions after they approached him showed he was resisting arrest and the officers acted to “neutralize the threat.”