A police officer in Texas has been suspended from duty after shocking video footage emerged of him drawing his gun and manhandling a group of unarmed teenagers, including a 14-year old girl in bikini.
The clip shows Eric Casebolt arriving at the end-of-school celebrations at a community pool in McKinney. He is seen attempting to throw a young African-American girl on the pavement, before using his body weight to slam her down on the grass while pulling her hair.
"He grabbed me, twisted my arm on my back and shoved me in the grass and started pulling the back of my braids," Dajerria Becton, told Fox4 Dallas. "I was telling him to get off me because my back was hurting bad." She was arrested but later released to her parents.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Casebolt is then seen pulling his gun on two black teenage boys who come to her aid, before fellow officers intervene. One teenager can be heard saying: "Sir, we just came from a birthday party, please."
The McKinney Police Department said officers were responding to a "disturbance" involving a number of children who did not have permission to be at the pool party.
But witnesses say the incident began after white residents made racist comments to the black teenagers, telling them to leave the area and return to "Section 8 [public] housing," Buzzfeed reports.
"I think a bunch of white parents were angry that a bunch of black kids who don't live in the neighbourhood were in the pool," said 15-year old Brandon Brooks, who filmed the video. "Everyone who was getting put on the ground was black, Mexican, Arabic."
Local authorities have promised to investigate the incident. "Having seen the YouTube video, I am disturbed and concerned by the incident and actions depicted," McKinney mayor Brian Loughmiller said in a statement.
The incident comes amid heightened tensions between police and African American communities following the deaths of several unarmed black men in police custody.
