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Texas Cop Chokes 14-Year Old Student ‘For His Safety’

A Round Rock, TX, police officer grabs a 14-year-old student by the throat CREDIT: KXAN-TV
A Round Rock, TX, police officer grabs a 14-year-old student by the throat CREDIT: KXAN-TV

After apparently telling a cop to leave him alone, a black 14-year-old Round Rock High School student was grabbed by the throat and dragged to the ground by a police officer on Thursday, a video published by KXAN reveals. The police department claims the move was for the boy’s own safety.

Round Rock is a small city just north of Austin and calls itself the “Sports Capital of Texas.” When two students got into a shoving match, reportedly over a pair of sports goggles, the school’s assistant principal and two school resource officers (local police officers assigned to the school) interceded. Moments later, one of those students was in a chokehold.

The student told the local TV station that after one of the officers berated him for his behavior, he asked to be left alone. “That’s the point when he grabbed me and took me down and tried to detain me,” he recounted, “I was just very upset, I was amped up over the fight and wasn’t really thinking.”

A statement from the Round Rock Police Department noted the “student refused to calm down and was attempting to get past the SROs to the location of the other student to continue with the altercation. After repeated attempts to calm the non-compliant student, and stop him from going after the other student, officers were forced to detain him for his safety and the safety of others.”

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No arrests were made, but the incident is under review and the student’s father said he plans to press charges against the officer for “totally unnecessary” handling of a “130-pound child.” “I believe that the officer in question should definitely go through some re-training or be reassessed in terms of how you handle conflicts like this,” he told the station. The student said he was suspended and given two Saturday detentions.

Watch the video:

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