BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome is petitioning a court to release body cam footage of a teen’s arrest as the Baton Rouge police look into how the teen was handled in a viral video.
An investigation is underway after part of the video showed an officer restraining a child by applying an arm-hold. The attorney representing the teen said, the technique was excessive to use on a child.
The video shared by the teen’s aunt shows a Baton Rouge police officer pinning the 13-year-old boy to the ground before arresting him.
“It shows a reckless disregard to his safety” said attorney Ron Haley.
Monday, the family’s attorney Ron Haley reviewed the body cam footage and said, there’s more to this story.
“Do we believe that this force that was used against our client was excessive, yes. Did the snippet video that was on social media tell the entire story, it doesn’t” said Haley.
The video began making its rounds on social media Sunday afternoon. According to BRPD, officers initially responded to a disturbance call the 13000 block of Goodwood Drive.
BRPD confirmed, children and adults were involved in an altercations and officer were called to the scene twice.
It was during the second response, officers attempted to arrest a woman when chaos broke out leading to the video that circulated.
Baton Rouge Police Department’s Public Information Officer, L’Jean McKneely said during the second visit, two juveniles a male, 13, and female, 13, were arrested.
According to McKneely, the male was taken into custody and the female was taken to a detention center then released to family.
A similar scene played out in July when a 16-year-old’s arrest went viral. Many people raised questions like, “was the officer’s knee on the neck or the back?” and “what’s BRPD’s stance on chocking polices?”
This recent incident has many people in the capital city calling on the department to once again address their internal policies.
“That investigation will make sure and determine if our officer was within compliance of his training and also procedures” said Baton Rouge Chief of Police, Murphy Paul.
During Monday’s news conference, Mayor-President, Sharon Weston Broome confirmed, they are petitioning to the court to release the video to the public, echoing the Chief’s promise of transparency.
“I want the community to know for me as Mia president that we were not stir around issues, shy away from any issues. I assure you that we were thoroughly investigate what has going on here and make sure that transparency is heightened and communication throughout this process” said Mayor Broome.
According to Haley, it will take time before the footage is released because multiple juveniles are involved. He said, he’s calling on the community to be patient.
“I do want to ensure the public that in no way, shape or form this is a way to hide the ball or to delay” said Haley.