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May 28, 2023 | 1:40 p.m
An autistic Harlem boy was arrested by the NYPD and subjected to a mental exam after he chose dark 1989 comedy Heathers for a school assignment – and told a teacher he identified with the murderous lead character, reports in a lawsuit.
Terrance O’Connor, 15, was asked last year to choose a film to discuss in class and watched the Winona Ryder classic on his iPad before telling the teacher that according to his father he was dating Christian Slater’s murderous character “JD” identified. David, 45.
The teacher then reported the boy to school officials, who alerted security at PS 72/The Lexington Academy on East 104th Street in Harlem, who in turn recommended contacting the NYPD, O’Connor said in a May 19 filing Complaint.
No one told officers Terrance was autistic and in special education, said his father, who described the boy as “15, but he’s really more like 5.”
David O’Connor, 45, said no one told police his son had special needs. Helayne Seidman
Police told O’Connor that they would arrest Terrance “on charges of murder and a potential terrorist threat,” according to the Manhattan Supreme Court’s lawsuit against the city, the Department of Education, the NYPD, Health and Hospitals Corp. and others emerges .
Later that same day, more than half a dozen officers showed up at O’Connor’s door and dragged the boy to the 23rd Precinct for questioning, court documents said.
David O’Connor shares a picture of his son Terrance, 15, who is said to have undergone a mental exam after choosing dark comedy “Heathers” for a class assignment. Helayne Seidman
“If you see this child, it will not harm a bug. He’s the cutest kid in the world,” the elder O’Connor told The Post. “They never informed the police that my son was a special needs student. I wasn’t even allowed to say goodbye to my son. They held him down, no lawyer, nothing, they were back there talking to him.”
The boy was then taken to Metropolitan Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, the complaint said.
“That really screwed him up. “He saw a whole lot in one night that no kid should ever see, largely due to the mistakes and poor judgment of others,” O’Connor said.
Terrance is the “cutest kid alive,” but he won’t leave the house after struggling with his arrest, his father says. Courtesy of David O’Connor
Terrance did not return home from the ordeal until after midnight on June 2, 2022, the angry father said.
Well, “My son, he doesn’t leave the house. … He thinks the police and federal police are watching him. That’s why he’s isolating,” said O’Connor, a father of three.
“My son was not destroyed before.”
The family has seen some tragedy, said O’Connor, who recalled losing their home to Hurricane Sandy and his children, including Terrance, finding their mother dead in the bathroom after struggling with health issues .
“I don’t have my son. “I don’t have my son that I would sit down with and build Legos with,” he lamented.
Christian Slater as “JD” in Heathers.©New World Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection Slater, flanked by Wynona Ryder, plays a murderous teenager in the film.©New World Pictures/Courtesy Everett Col/Everett Collection
The boy was “seriously abandoned by the institutions that were supposed to protect him,” family lawyer Migir Ilganayev said. “What happened to TJ shouldn’t happen to any kid, whether they’re autistic or not.”
The family is demanding an unspecified amount of damages. The NYPD and the city’s legal department declined to comment on the litigation.
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