Deputy Ben Fields, the police officer involved in a confrontation with an unnamed student at a South Carolina high school on Monday has been relieved of his duties on Wednesday as a result of the incident.
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott during an interview with CNN said it was unfortunate about the incident but after watching the 3rd video that emerged, they had to let him go.
He said, the Police officer followed protocol until when he threw the girl across the room. He said according to their training and what's acceptable when taking a suspect down, they are required never to let go of a suspect during a confrontation or an arrest but that he violated that rule when he had at the desk and threw her thereby losing contact with her.
Lott also said that the teacher and the Assistant Principal thought what Deputy Fields did was right, he said they both agreed with him but that according to the Police training he didn't follow protocol.
The teacher said the student was on her phone during class and was asked to put her phone away but she refused. The Assistant Principal was called in the matter and repeated the same thing to the girl but again she refused. Then they asked her to leave the class, an instruction which she ignored, so they called in Deputy Fields to take her out of the class. Deputy Fields asked her to get up and leave the class, she ignired him, he repeated the request, again she ignored him and that was when he picked her up and threw her across the room
Lott said:
“When the officer puts his hands on her initially, she reaches up and she pops the officer with her fist.” He did right when he tried to remove her from her desk but broke protocol when he threw her across the room"He said Deputy Fields was sorry about how he handled the incident and wished he had handled it differently.
Deputy Fields' Lawyer is preparing to fight to have his client reinstated in the force.
Post a Comment