*A video taken of a heated situation in El Paso, Texas, on Thursday (07-05-18) has gone viral after an officer was seen pointing his gun at a group of children.
The incident resulted in the officer being placed on desk duty and is being investigated, city officials said Saturday.
The video has gone viral, with more than 2.7 million views on Facebook.
El Paso Deputy City Manager Dionne L. Mack and El Paso Police Department spokesman Sgt. Enrique Carrillo said at a news conference Saturday that an adult and a minor were arrested for interfering with the duties of a police officer. No injuries were reported.
OTHER NEWS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: Billy Dee Williams Reprising Lando Calrissian Role in ‘Star Wars: Episode IX’
A police officer in El Paso, Texas, was placed on administrative leave after a video showed him pulling a gun on a group of young children. https://t.co/Nt9eO2lf31
— NBC News (@NBCNews) July 9, 2018
“We have assigned additional resources to ensure the investigation can be completed expediently,” Mack said. She did not provide a timeline for when the investigation would be completed.
The video begins in the middle of an altercation between a police officer and a boy who appears to be a teenager. It shows the officer with his hand on the head of a boy who is sitting on the sidewalk.
At least six young boys can be seen in the video yelling and cursing at the officer.
The officer then pulls out his handgun, points it at the boys and yells “Back up! Back up (expletive).”
The family at the center of a viral video explained what happened moments before the video was recorded.
Watch:
ICYMI: The family at the center of a viral video involving an El Paso Police officer tells KTSM what happened moments before the video was recorded.
Full story: https://t.co/L92ZFzVRyC pic.twitter.com/9rxlIIXplj
— KTSM NewsChannel 9 (@KTSMtv) July 8, 2018
“The officers arrived and were handling that when they encountered the suspect involved in the criminal trespass and from there the events you witnessed in this video unfolded and that is where we are at,” Carrillo said.
After holstering his gun, the officer in the video points to someone off camera and says, “You again?”
He calls for more officers to respond to the scene and soon, another officer arrives and both officers then pull the boy to the ground.
The boy recording the video says, “It is all good. We are going to put a report on these two fools. It’s all good.”
He is then grabbed by the police officer but hands his phone to someone else and is handcuffed and placed in the back of a squad car with the other boy.
A woman can be heard yelling curse words at the officers and he threatens her with: “I know where you live.”
The Internal Affairs investigation will look at whether the officer violated any department policies.
“The whole investigation process with IA (Internal Affairs) will determine whether the officer followed protocol, look at all of the related incidents that surrounded that, take an opportunity to (do) interviews,” Mack said. “And go through that entire process, so all the facts and data are gathered before any conclusions are drawn.”
Watch insanity unfold via the clip below:
Watch as an El Paso police officer pulls a gun on an unarmed child. pic.twitter.com/PFuyy9gvgM
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) July 9, 2018
