By ,
Published January 01, 2017
A police officer in Dallas suburb was put on administrative leave after an incident at a pool party involving dozens of teenagers, many of them black and Hispanic, in which he was caught on video shoving a bikini-clad girl to the ground, restraining her facedown at one point by placing both his knees on her and waving his gun at a number of other kids.
Fox4 Dallas-Fort Worth is reporting that the officer on the video is McKinney, Texas, police corporal Eric Casebolt, who can be seen restraining Dajerria Becton, who claimed she was not involved in the fight that prompted the call to the police.
“He grabbed me, twisted my arm on my back and shoved me in the grass and started pulling the back of my braids,” Becton told Fox4. “I was telling him to get off me because my back was hurting bad."
Warning: Raw footage, contains offensive language:
McKinney Police Chief Greg Conley said at a news conference Sunday that the incident began when officers responded Friday at 7:15 p.m. to a disturbance involving a group of juveniles at a neighborhood pool.
The police department said in an earlier statement that the young people did not live in the area and did not have permission to be there.
When officers arrived, residents and private security pointed out the juveniles, who were "creating the disturbance, fighting and refusing to leave," Conley said.
As officers dispersed the crowd, Becton was "temporarily detained" by an officer, said Conley, who did not describe what led to her detainment.
Brandon Brooks, the party guest who posted the video to YouTube, where it has already been seen more than 4 million times, told BuzzFeed that police officers seemed to be targeting minorities.
“I think a bunch of white parents were angry that a bunch of black kids who don’t live in the neighborhood were in the pool,” Brooks, who is white, told BuzzFeed. “Everyone who was getting put on the ground was black, Mexican, Arabic ... [The cop] didn’t even look at me. It was kind of like I was invisible.”
One man was arrested for interference with the duties of a peace officer and evading arrest, Conley said. Everyone else was released.
Becton was released to her family, who told Fox4 they were upset about her treatment.
"It wasn't right, I think his force was excessive," said Becton's aunt.
One homeowner in the neighborhood, who declined to be named by Fox4, defended the police, saying, "They were just doing the right thing when these kids were fleeing and using profanity and threatening security guards."
According to the TV station, a sign was posted on Sunday at the pool thanking McKinney police.
McKinney Mayor Brian Loughmiller said in a written statement that he was "disturbed and concerned by the incident and actions depicted in the video." He called for the city and police to quickly investigate.
McKinney is about 35 miles northeast of Dallas.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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