Louisiana police officer placed on leave after video shows juvenile punched during arrest

Interim Lafayette, La., Police Chief Scott Morgan announced Sunday that he placed an officer on administrative leave and removed two other officers from regular duties after a viral video showed two teenage boys getting punched during an arrest. 

Department spokesman Sgt. Wayne Griffin said in a press release that police were called Saturday night about a man with a gun at a bowling alley. 

Officers then arrested a teenager at the bowling alley, where he was charged with interfering with a police investigation, resisting arrest and battery of a police officer. Officers said they did not find a gun at the scene. 

The family of the arrested juvenile hired Ronald Haley, one of the lawyers representing the family of 31-year-old Trayford Pellerin, a Black Lafayette man who was shot and killed by police on Aug. 21. 

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Haley said at a press conference Monday that the incident involved two twin brothers who have been targeted by local police, although a Lafayette Police Department press release on the incident only referenced the arrest of one young person. 

“They’re boys,” Haley said. “They’re not threats. They are children. They are children morally, and they are children in the eyes of the law, and they should be protected as such.”

The arrest comes as the Louisiana State Police is leading an investigation into Pellerin’s death. The state police released a preliminary report last month that found Lafayette officers first encountered Pellerin after responding to a report that someone was at a convenience store armed with a knife. Those officers attempted to detain Pellerin, prompting him to flee. 

The report states that local officers discharged their firearms as Pellerin tried to enter the convenience store, and Pellerin was struck by the gunfire before being transported to a local hospital, where he later died.