Eric Casebolt, Officer Caught On Tape Throwing Girl To The Ground At McKinney Pool Party, Resigns

Eric Casebolt, the cop caught on video forcing a bikini clad 14-year-old girl to the ground and drawing his weapon on a group of teenage boys, has resigned from the McKinney Police Department.

Eric Casebolt Resigns

On Saturday, video footage surfaced of Casebolt responding to a call at a community pool where teenage students were having a pool party to celebrate the end of the school year. In the video, Casebolt is seen yelling at the teens, cursing at them and putting them in handcuffs. At one point, he turns on a young girl in a bikini who was visibly upset and forces her to sit on the ground, pulling her arm hard, causing her to twist and fall to the ground. When other kids see him throwing the girl on the ground, they come running to protect her, and Casebolt is seen drawing his weapon – believed to have been his gun, not a taser – at three young boys. He then returns to the girl, who is sitting on the ground yelling, “Call my momma!” Casebolt is clearly seen manhandling the girl, forcing her to lay face down on the ground, pinning her with his knees on her back as she cries.

The girl has since been identified as Dajerria Becton. She was later released to her parents and no charges were filed against her. “He grabbed me, twisted my arm on my back and shoved me in the grass and started pulling the back of my braids,” she recounted to reporters.

In the video, Casebolt appears to ignore the white teens at the party, allowing them to leave the scene and go home, while being forceful and hateful with the African American and Latino kids. Brandon Brooks, the 15-year-old who shot the video and posted it on YouTube, described the scene, saying, “Everyone who was getting put on the ground was black, Mexican, Arabic. [The cop] didn’t even look at me. It was kind of like I was invisible.” Brooks is white.

Tatyana Rhodes, 19, alleged that a white woman had started saying racist comments about some of the pool party guests, causing a fight that eventually led to the cops being called.

Others in the community have said that police were called after the party became too rowdy, and that teens refused to cooperate with the police when they arrived, causing chaos. And some have publicly declared their support of Officer Casebolt and the McKinney Police.

Pool just put up this sign supporting McKinney PD & thanking officers for their response Friday pic.twitter.com/P7bC9hULCF

— Zahid Arab (@ZahidArabFox4) June 7, 2015

Authorities have stated that the first calls police received were about “juveniles” trying to break into the community pool without permission. “McKinney Police received several additional calls related to this incident advising that juveniles were now actively fighting,” said the city. The investigation into the incident is ongoing.

McKinney Pool Party

Casebolt was originally put on administrative leave by the McKinney Police Department after the video surfaced. “The video has raised concerns that are being investigated by the McKinney Police Department. At this time, one of the responding officers [Casebolt] has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of this investigation,” the McKinney PD said in a statement on Sunday, June 7.

On Tuesday, June 9, Casebolt’s attorney informed reporters that Casebolt had officially resigned from his post with the police department, and will reportedly receive his pension. His resignation was announced at the beginning of a press conference from McKinney Chief of Police Greg Conley, in which Conley condemned Casebolt’s actions.

“Eric Casebolt has resigned from the McKinney Police Department. As the Chief of Police, I want to say to our community that the actions of Casebolt, as seen on the video of the disturbance at the community pool, are indefensible,” Conely said.

“He came into a call out of control and as the video shows was out of control during the incident,” Conely said, adding that the 11 other officers who responded to the scene had done “an excellent job.”

Conely did not give more information on what started the incident, saying only that the McKinney Police were called for “a fight in progress and general disturbance” at the pool. Conely did not let the teens who talked back and disrespected the responding officers off the hook, but admitted that Casebolt’s actions were unacceptable.

“I do not condone the actions of those individuals who violated the rules of the community, showed disrespect to the security person on scene and to the officers who responded. However, we as a department are held to a high standard of action as we do our jobs,” Conely added.

It’s unclear what actions, if any, the police plan to take against Casebolt. At the press conference, Conely suggested that the Internal Affairs investigation into Casebolt had been dropped following his resignation, and it’s unclear whether any criminal investigation is underway.

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