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A Texas teen who filmed a police officer pull his gun after yanking her young black friend to the ground by the hair at a Dallas area pool party has said that she couldn’t believe what she was seeing, and that she is almost certain that the act of police violence over the weekend was driven by race.
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Jahda Bakari, 13, filmed the incident on Friday in McKinney, Texas, a suburb about 30 miles north of Dallas, in which an officer from the McKinney Police Department, identified as Officer Eric Casebolt, yells expletives at teenagers and handcuffs them. Casebolt also forcefully pulls one teenage girl to the ground, places her in handcuffs, and is heard yelling “Get your ass on the ground!”
“I honestly believe it was about race, because mostly they did nothing to the Caucasians,” at the party, Bakari told CBS News. “They were acting like we were criminals… We were just there for a pool party.”
The teen seen being manhandled by Casebolt in the video, 15-year-old Dajerria Becton, has also spoken out about the incident, telling Fox 4 the officer “grabbed me and he twisted my arm on the back of my back… started pulling the back of the braids.”
Related: Video Shows Texas Cop Drawing Gun and Pulling Teenage Girl’s Hair While Breaking Up Pool Party
The melee began when police attempted to break up a pool party to celebrate the end of the school year in the mostly white suburb. Many of the teens attending the pool party were black. McKinney Police Chief Greg Conley said that three officers arrived after a private security officer at the Craig Ranch Community called police when several teens that did not have permission to use the pool refused to leave.
One neighbor in the Craig Ranch subdivision told Fox 4 that she supports the officer’s actions, adding that Becton was resisting arrest and the teens were “fleeing” and “using profanity.” But Becton’s mother has said his actions were “excessive.”
The cell phone footage, which has made national news and has been viewed more than 4 million times, has ignited fury from members of the community.
McKinney Police have launched an investigation into the incident and Casebolt, who has since been placed on administrative leave.
“Any time you confront a large group of people, it’s a very dynamic situation and tensions can rise very quickly,” Chief Conley said.
McKinney Mayor Brian Loughmiller released a statement saying that he expects a swift investigation into the officer and the incident.
“I am disturbed and concerned by the incident and actions depicted in the video,” he said. “Our expectation as a City Council is that our police department and other departments will act professionally and with appropriate restraint relative to the situation they are faced with.”
