Florida police officer punches restrained black teen, video shows

A police department in Florida is assuring people there’s a reason one of their officers punched a black 14-year-old as they arrested her at a shopping mall Thursday. The arrest, which was captured in a nine-second video clip, quickly went viral after activists circulated footage of the incident on social media. In the video, the teenage girl is pinned to the ground by two police officers, one of whom punches her in the ribs twice. “Why are you hitting her?” one girl screams off camera.

“As with all social media posts, it shows only the end of the story, not the incident in its entirety which led up to the arrest,” the Coral Springs Police Department wrote in a statement posted to Facebook and labeled “rumor control.”

“As seen in the video she resisted arrest, and in order to have her to comply she was struck in the side to release her clenched fists — she was then handcuffed,” the statement continued. In the video, the teen’s hands appear to be pinned underneath her, and a bystander screams, “Her hands are underneath her.” The department said officers banned the 14-year-old girl and some other teens after mall security called the police on them for being unruly and violent toward other patrons. The teens, however, returned.

When the police officers came back, they took one teen into custody and the 14-year-old girl in the video began cursing and attempting to resist arrested, according to the department. The officers then “took her to the ground” and hit her so she would release her fists and could be handcuffed. “”It is important for people to have all of the facts before rushing to judgment of an officer’s actions when faced with calls for service involving violent suspects — regardless of their age or gender,” the Coral Springs Police Department wrote in the Facebook post.

The girl’s attorney, Meeghan Moldof, wouldn’t comment to CBS Miami about what went down before the video, but she said, “The video speaks for itself.”

Chris Swinson, a public information officer for the Coral Springs Police Department, told VICE News the girl’s mother has not filed a formal complaint and that there were no observed policy violations during the arrest. The city also plans to release a following statement on the incident sometime in the future.

Cover image: Screenshot from bystander video