Texas teen says cop slammed her to ground, pulled her braids during pool party raid: ‘Him getting fired is not enough’
BY MEG WAGNER NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
A McKinney police officer is on leave after a video was posted over the weekend showing him throwing teen Dajerria Becton, pictured, to the ground and sitting on her, and drawing his gun on other teens at a pool party.
The teen who was body-slammed by a Texas cop at a graduation pool party wants to see him fired — and more changes within the force.
Video from the Friday party-turned-fight shows McKinney police Cpl. Eric Casebolt yank 15-year-old bikini-clad Dajerria Becton onto her stomach and then kneel on her as he points his gun at other partygoers.
A fight at the community pool broke out after white adults told some black partygoers to “go back to their Section 8 Housing,” the party’s host told Fox 4.
Police said they were originally called to the pool because neighbors reported that the swimmers didn’t have permission to use it. When they showed up, the partygoers refused to follow orders.
Becton said she was an invited guest at the party who had permission to use the pool. She was trying to leave the area and get away from the chaos when Casebolt approached her, she said.
The cop threw her on to the ground, rolled her over so her face was in the grass and sat on her back, video shows.
“He grabbed me, twisted my arm on my back and shoved me in the grass and started pulling the back of my braids,” Becton told the TV station. “I was telling him to get off me because my back was hurting bad.”
She struggled to get up, but Casebolt kept pinning her down, she said. The 15-year-old was eventually released when her family came to pick her up.
Casebolt has been placed on leave pending an investigation. The teen said he should lose his job and wants to see more done to prevent future police brutality.
“Him getting fired is not enough," she said.
Officers were initially called to the pool — a community facility open only to neighbors — because residents reported a group of juveniles fighting. Those teens did not have permission to be there, the callers said.
It’s not clear if the callers were referencing the group of teens at the pool for an end-of-the-school-year party.
The celebration’s host — a 19-year-old neighborhood resident named Tatiana — said her family invited a racially diverse group of friends to the poolside cookout and gave them all guest passes to swim.
While the friends were at the pool, a group of white women told the host’s black, invited guests to “go back to (their) Section 8 homes,” she said in a YouTube video after the ordeal.
Tatiana said some of the teens tried to explain that they were all either invited guests or residents, but the women continued to taunt them and ordered them to "go back to where (they're) from."
When Tatiana asked "Excuse me?" one of the women slapped her in her face, she said.
When police arrived on the scene, everyone fled, including the invited guests.
Becton said she was trying to leave the scene with the rest of the group when Casebolt grabbed her and forced her on the ground. Another neighbor claimed she saw the teen resist the cop when he tried to handcuff her, prompting his takedown.
Brandon Brooks, a 15-year-old at the party, shot video of Casebolt throwing Becton to the ground. He told Buzzfeed News that the cop only targeted minority teenagers.
“Everyone who was getting put on the ground was black, Mexican, Arabic,” said Brooks, who is white. “(The cop) didn’t even look at me. It was kind of like I was invisible.”
In the video, Casebolt pointed his weapon at some of the other teens.
“Y’all make me f--king run around here with 30 pounds of goddamn gear on in the sun, because you want to screw around out here,” Casebolt told a group of seated teens.
Video showed other cops more calmly tending to the scene.
Police said the video “raised concerns” and was being investigated.
McKinney Mayor Brian Loughmiller also found the video troubling.
“Having seen the You Tube video, I am disturbed and concerned by the incident and actions depicted in the video. 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,” he said in a statement.
