The police dashboard camera revealed the footage of the incident a few days ago in Paris Texas where an officer who was attempting to make an arrest slammed the teenager onto the hood of a police car.
The car was driven by another officer who came to assist in what eventually escalated to a dangerous situation for the officers as the teenagers friends and family came rushing in to stop the officers from hurting the young man.
Police Chief Bob Hundley
told First12News some of the action caught on tape that day needed to be investigated. "This is just one of those situations where the emotions of the situation got out of line,” he said.
In the video, a teenager is seen being thrown on the hood of the car. That man is 18-year-old Cornelius Gill."I guess he got aggravated with me and just slammed me on the car and was yanking on me,” said Gill.
Gill was taken to the hospital, but wasn't seriously injured, he was then taken to jail and booked for disorderly conduct. "It really hurt. I couldn’t breathe and I just couldn't believe he would do somebody like that," said Gill.
The officer involved, Officer Jeremy Massey, was suspended for two days without pay after an internal investigation, and Chief Hundley says that his department takes allegations of police abuse very seriously.
"We are going to look at everything that comes up to see if there is anything there or not. In this case there was, and that is my call and my decision that this is what we should be doing and that is why we responded the way we did,” said Hundley.
That response has left Cornelius Gill with mixed emotions. "I am glad that something happened to him, but I feel that more needs to happen for this," he said.
The public response has been negative for the officers involved as well as the department. Locals say this isn't the first situation where force was used when it wasn't needed.
