Video Shows School Police Officer Making Rough Arrest On 14-Year-Old
SANTA ANA (CBSLA.com) — A school in Santa Ana is the scene of controversy after a cellphone video caught one of the school's officers making a rough arrest on a teenager.
In the arrest, which occurred Tuesday morning at Adams Park at the corner of W. Warner Ave. and S. Raist St., shows a Santa Ana School Department police officer subduing a 14-year-old male, as onlookers can be heard trying to tell the officer that he was being too rough.
Crying and calls for help from the boy can also be heard, as the officer shouts "Stop fighting me", along with the boy's response, "I'm not fighting you".
Witnesses in the background can also be heard trying to tell the officer that the boy did not appear to be fighting back.
Elvia Fernandez, who captured the event on her cellphone video camera, says that the teenager was being held in a choke-hold by the officer.
"If I see someone on top of me, and I can't breathe, obviously yeah, I'm going to be moving," Fernandez said.
During the incident, Fernandez reports, she attempted to communicate with the boy in Spanish, to tell him to keep calm, at which point she says the officer allegedly told her not to speak Spanish.
Another local says that the boy was running, and that she believes the officer did nothing wrong.
"He was a punk that was breaking that law and they didn't do anything wrong," the woman said. "They stopped him. When a policeman tells you to stop, you stop. The kid was running."
The school police department reports that the matter is under investigation.
