Florida deputy fired after grabbing middle-schooler by her headscarf

A Florida middle school resource officer was fired Friday after a viral body-camera video showed him grabbing a young girl by the back of her headscarf while he detained her a day earlier.

Orange County Sheriff John Mina made the announcement of the deputy’s firing in a statement shared to Twitter on Friday, and later gave a press briefing about the incident. The identity of the deputy who was fired has yet to be released.

OCSO @SheriffMina addresses the media about the Orange County Sheriff’s Office being made aware of a video this morning in which a School Resource Deputy used an inappropriate amount of force on a student. The SRD was immediately removed from the school pending termination. pic.twitter.com/EWiyo6jj7j

— Orange County Sheriff’s Office (@OrangeCoSheriff) November 8, 2019

Mina said he was “extremely upset, disappointed and outraged by the conduct” of the resource officer, adding that “this type of behavior is not tolerated.”{mosads}

He said once the body-camera video was reviewed, the deputy was immediately pulled from the school and fired. Mina described the actions by the officer as a clear use of “excessive force” that “violated many policies.”

Police had reportedly been called to the scene over reports of two groups of girls fighting. 

The viral video shows two officers arriving at the scene of a confrontation between middle school students outside of an apartment building. One officer can be heard attempting to calm the situation, saying “relax” and “I’m not yelling at you,” to an unnamed middle school girl seen in a headscarf.

The second deputy, who has since been fired, then appears on the scene and pulls out his baton before yelling at the crowd of people to move back and shouting, “This is because you’re silly. You all stupid little children.”

The confrontation escalates, with the deputy grabbing the unnamed girl by her headscarf to detain her.

According to The Orlando Sentinel, the girl was briefly detained and later released. 

Mina praised the first officer for trying to deescalate the confrontation when he arrived, saying the second deputy “showed up and actually escalated the situation, and made it worse.”

Mina said there is still an investigation underway and a review will be conducted to see if any criminal charges against the deputy are warranted.