The Fort Worth Police Department (FWPD) is investigating a viral video of one of its officers arresting three women, after one of the woman called to report her son being assaulted.
The officer involved has been placed on “restricted duty status” by FWPD Chief Joel Fitzgerald.
Fort Worth resident Jacqueline Craig, 46, called the police department on Wednesday afternoon to report a man who had allegedly grabbed her 7-year-old son. Relatives of Craig said the man in their southwest Fort Worth neighborhood grabbed the child by the neck after noticing him litter.
“Why don’t you teach your son not to litter?” the officer who responded to the call is heard asking Craig in the video. She responds, “It doesn’t matter if he did or not. It doesn’t give him the right to put his hands on him.”
“Why not?” the officer replies. The situation escalated and the officer is seen pulling a stun gun and pulling the women to the ground. He then handcuffed and arrested three women present: Craig and her two daughters, Brea Hymond, 19, and Jacques Craig, 15, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa_KETAUpoA
The woman who posted the video, who identified herself as a cousin to Craig’s son, decried the police officer as a racist and said the purpose of posting the video was to force the department to terminate him.
An internal affairs investigation has begun to review the incident, FWPD said in a statement released Thursday afternoon. Investigators have interviewed witnesses and reviewed video from a body camera worn by the officer during the incident, FWPD said.
“We acknowledge that the initial appearance of the video may raise serious questions,” the department said. “We ask that our investigators are given the time and opportunity to thoroughly examine this incident and to submit their findings.”
FWPD issued a “safety alert” on Thursday after a threat was posted on a Facebook page regarding the video, the Star-Telegram reports.
“On God I say we kill all the white cops in Fort Worth,” a man allegedly posted. The individual who made the threat has previously been arrested for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and aggravated robbery, police said.