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An outraged Brooklyn mother spoke out today against the New York City Police Department on behalf of her critically injured son. Channell Barber of East New York says her 18-year-old son, Rahiym Holmes, spent four days in a coma after police slammed him to the ground two weeks ago.

"I feel angry and depressed about the circumstances," said Barber to reporters.

Holmes suffered a fractured skull and brain damage.

"I tried to protect him from the streets I feel protecting him it still happened, because it happened from someone of authority," said Barber.

Family members and lawyers say on July 11, the day before Holmes was supposed to start college, the teenager and his friends were walking home from a barbecue at Canarsie Pier.

Witnesses told the lawyers that some police officers who dispersed the crowd at the pier first taunted Holmes and his friends. Then, they say one officer body-slammed Holmes to the ground for no reason.

"I just pray and hope that he makes it to be 100 percent better," said Barber.

The NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating the incident.

"We want to interview the complainer. The attorney has rebuffed us. We haven't been able on three separate occasions to talk to him, the complainer. We're asking for his cooperation," said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. "The Internal Affairs Bureau has been given this assignment but has not been able to talk to people represented by this particular attorney."

The family has filed a notice of claim, the first towards a lawsuit against the city and the NYPD, behalf of Holmes. Relatives say Holmes was shackled to a hospital bed while he was in a coma. He was later charged with reckless endangerment, a misdemeanor, but his family says police had no evidence to back it up.

The lawyers say the NYPD's stop-and-frisk policy is to blame and plan to file a separate class action lawsuit.

"We believe that these injuries occurred because of the City of New York's illegal pursuit of young African-American and other minority males," said Leslie Kelmachter, an attorney for Holmes's family.

Holmes is still in the hospital in a traumatic brain unit in Brooklyn and is going through rehabilitation. His family says he still has trouble walking and may never fully recover.