US police officer suspended after pulling gun on teens

A Texas police officer has been suspended after video posted online showed him breaking up a pool party in an extremely aggressive manner, including drawing his gun.

On Friday, units from the McKinney police department were called to the party, at Craig Ranch North Community Pool, over reports of a fight.

Police said the incident involved “multiple juveniles at the location, who do not live in the area or have permission to be there, refusing to leave”.

Video posted to YouTube on Saturday showed one officer sprinting past the camera, falling and losing his flashlight, then running again.

Teenagers are seen returning the flashlight to another officer, who responds politely, before the first officer returns and shouts: “On the ground! I told you to stay! Get your asses on the ground. I told you to stay!”

The officer, who was not immediately named after his suspension was announced, is then seen forcing a number of teenagers to lie on a grass verge and a sidewalk and telling others to “get your ass out of here”. Some teenagers are handcuffed.

One teenager can be heard to say: “Sir, we just came from a birthday party, please.”

Another says: “Officer, I can’t find my bag.”

The officer replies: “I don’t care, sit down.”

The officer is then shown talking to teenagers on the ground.

“Don’t make me run round here with 30 kinds of f_____g gear on in the sun,” he says, “because you want to screw around out here.”

He then forces a group of bystanders to leave. One, a girl, does not comply and the officer wrestles her to the ground. When other teenagers surround him to remonstrate, he draws his gun. Two other officers move to restrain him, and the officer re-holsters the weapon. He then slams the girl back to the ground, shouting: “On your face!”

As the officer sits on the girl to keep her subdued, hectoring her all the while, a voice, possibly that of the person filming the incident, says the officer pulled a gun on the girl.

“No I didn’t,” he says, pointing at the camera. “Now get your butts outta here.”

The officer is later shown in close-up, lecturing two boys who are sitting on the ground.

“You just did what everybody else did,” he says, “and what everybody else did was illegal. You did it and you got caught. Now you’re sitting here paying for it.

“I asked y’all to sit,” he adds, “you didn’t and you became a part of the mob. You could’ve been the guys that were doing right and you weren’t, so now you’re sitting here in trouble.”

The officer in question is white; most of the teenagers on the video are African American. A number of white men in civilian clothes are also shown.

The poster of the YouTube video, named on the site as Brandon Brooks, wrote: "A fight between a mom and a girl broke out and when the cops showed up everyone ran, including the people who didn't do anything. So the cops just started putting everyone on the ground and in handcuffs for no reason. This kind of force is uncalled for especially on children and innocent bystanders."

A police representative said the video “raised concerns”, and said the officer had been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation.

Guardian