A Louisiana police officer has been placed on administrative leave and two others were pulled from duty after social media video surfaced of an arrest of a teenager over the weekend, according to the press release from the Lafayette Police Department.
Lafayette police responded to the Acadiana Lanes bowling alley around 11:30 nm. Saterdagaand. The names of the officers and teens involved were not released by police.
The attorney for the family of twin 16-year-old boys, Jabari and Gerard Celestine, tells CNN that police were responding to reports of someone near the bowling alley with a gun. He said neither had a gun.
Ron Haley Jr. said his clients were waiting outside the bowling alley before going in, which is part of the Covid-19 measures being taken in the state. Lafayette police officers approached Jabari, read him his rights and handcuffed him, Haley gesê.
Videos shared on social media do not fully show what happened next. In een, a teen, who Haley says is Gerard, is shown approaching an officer, who appears to push him. Another shows the officer appearing to push Gerard to the ground. Other videos appear to show an officer hitting the teen as they attempt to handcuff him.
Interim Police Chief Scott Morgan has ordered an investigation into the matter and placed one of the officers on administrative leave, the press release said. The two other officers involved will be temporarily pulled from regular duty pending the investigation, polisie gesê.
When reached by CNN, the police department said they were not providing any additional information on the event pending the investigation, including why officers responded to the bowling alley or naming the officers or juveniles involved in the incident.
Haley says Jabari was released without being charged and Gerard was arrested on counts of interference, resisting arrest and battery of a police officer.
Haley, who represents the two boys as well as the family of Trayford Pellerin, a Black man shot and killed by Lafayette police in August, told CNN the systemic racism in policing must stop.
“There is a problem with systemic racism and bias in policing and how police treat young Black men,” hy het gesê.
“First you have to be transparent. If you are a law enforcement officer, you have one of the only jobs in the country where it is legal in your job description to take away someone’s life, liberty and property. With that power, there must be transparency.”
Community member and activist Tara Fogleman tells CNN, “Police need to be held accountable. I am a White woman, but I have five Black children and nine Black grandchildren. That could have been my family.”
CNN has reached out to the police union and has not heard back.
