McKinney officer regrets pool incident but viewed teens as 'possible suspects' | Texas

McKinney officer regrets pool incident but viewed teens as 'possible suspects'

Texas police officer resigned from McKinney police force on Tuesday in the wake of video that showed him throwing a black teenage girl to the ground

The Texas police officer who manhandled black teenagers at a pool party has apologised for his conduct via a lawyer, who said the officer arrived at the scene in an emotional state because he had just attended two suicide calls.

Eric Casebolt’s attorney, Jane Bishkin, said in a news conference that earlier in his shift he had gone to an apartment complex where an African American man had shot himself in the head in front of his family in the pool area. He then attended a call where a teenage girl was threatening to jump off her parents’ roof.

Bishkin said that Casebolt “spent a considerable amount of time consoling the man’s grieving widow”. He then attended the second call. The girl was calmed down and was taken to hospital. “Eric’s compassion during these two incidents is a testament to his character,” Bishkin said, but “the nature of these two suicide calls took an emotional toll on Eric Casebolt”.

She said that when the initial report of a disturbance at the pool came in it was billed as a possible trespassing and Casebolt had not wanted to attend a simple-sounding incident, “given what he had just been through”. Then it was upgraded to a potential assault and Casebolt felt it was his duty to respond, she said.

Bishkin said that Casebolt viewed the teenagers leaving the pool as potential assault suspects who were fleeing. She insisted that “he was not targeting minorities” and that he also detained a white female.

“With all that happened that day he allowed his emotions to get the better of him. Eric regrets that his conduct portrayed him and his department in a negative light,” said Bishkin. “He apologises to all who were offended … the prior suicide calls put him in an emotional place that he would have preferred not to be in.”

Casebolt resigned from the McKinney police department on Tuesday. The corporal had been placed on administrative leave in the wake of the incident. Bishkin said that he is staying in an undisclosed location because he fears for his safety and that of his family after a number of threats were called into the police department.

Video footage posted on YouTube by a bystander showed the 10-year department veteran shouting, swearing and being physically aggressive towards young people after police were called to a private community pool in an affluent Dallas suburb on Friday night following reports of a fight and anti-social behaviour.

Images showed a 15-year-old girl in a bathing suit, Dajerria Becton, being wrestled to the ground by the 41-year-old, who also briefly drew his gun on two black male teenagers. No one was injured. An 18-year-old, Adrian Martin, was arrested and charged with evading arrest and interfering with police duties, but those charges were dropped, police said on Tuesday.

Coming at a time when violent interactions between police and African Americans are under intense scrutiny, the images went viral and prompted widespread outrage and accusations of racism.

At a news conference outside McKinney police headquarters earlier on Wednesday, local African American civil rights activists said that the resignation was not enough and that Casebolt should face an assault charge. “We want this officer charged, that’s the bottom line,” said Dominique Alexander of the Next Generation Action Network. “I spoke to Miss Becton and she doesn’t want anything less than this officer being charged.”

Alexander said that protests would continue until that happens.

Becton’s lawyer, Hannah Stroud, told a separate news conference that stress was no excuse for Casebolt’s actions and “the manner in which Ms Becton was treated was excessive, inappropriate and without cause” and a civil rights violation. Stroud said she is uncertain whether her client will take legal action and declined to speculate as to whether race was a factor in the confrontation. She added that Becton was finding it hard to eat and sleep and had hardly left her home since the encounter with the officer.

McKinney police chief Greg Conley told reporters on Tuesday that Casebolt’s behaviour was “indefensible” and “out of control” and that the other 11 officers who attended the call had performed in line with their training.

“Our policies, our training and our practice do not support his actions,” Conley said. He did not rule out criminal charges for Casebolt, who is under investigation but retains his pension and benefits and, in theory at least, is free to find a job as a police officer elsewhere.

Casebolt was accused of racial profiling in a 2008 civil rights lawsuit issued by a man he arrested for drug possession at a traffic stop. His accuser withdrew the suit and Casebolt denied wrongdoing.

A multi-racial prayer vigil took place outside the pool in the Craig Ranch subdivision on Tuesday night, a day after about 500 protestors marched from an elementary school to the pool.

Reaction to the incident was split, with many observers arguing that Casebolt acted differently towards the black teenagers than to the white people who were also on the scene. One of the party’s organisers alleged that the fight broke out after a white resident made racist comments.

Some residents praised the police, however, claiming that the party held to mark the end of the school year was unauthorised and had spiralled out of control and that the heavy-handed response was justified.

The city of 150,000’s mayor, Brian Loughmiller, told reporters that he does not believe “any one incident, any one individual, can totally define the community as a whole now or for the next year or for the next 10 years.”

Meanwhile, it was revealed on Wednesday that the man who initially called 911 to complain about the party and who has defended the controversial police response is a convicted felon who spent time in prison for torturing animals.

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