A video posted online shows a North Carolina police officer slamming a high school girl to the ground.
The nine-second video, posted to Twitter on Tuesday, shows a police officer at Rolesville High School lifting the student into the air before slamming her to the floor.
The officer then picks the limp student up, grabs her arms and takes her away.
School officials in Wake County told The News & Observer in nearby Raleigh that they were investigating the incident along with the Rolesville Police Department. The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina also said it was investigating.
“We’re very disturbed by what we saw in the video,” Irena Como, staff attorney for North Carolina’s ACLU, told The News & Observer. “This kind of force, especially with kids in schools, in never justified.”
The altercation with the officer took place after two girls got into a fight and a third, the one slammed by the officer, had tried to intervene, a spokeswoman for Wake County Schools, Lisa Luten, told the New York Daily News. A witness told WNCN.com that the girl was trying to defend her sister.
Rolesville Mayor Frank Eagles said the officer shown slamming the girl was wearing a body camera and that the footage will be looked at by authorities. Eagles also told WNCN.com that two officers are routinely assigned to the school, so there may be other body camera footage.