Mother âmad and heartbrokenâ with video of Mobile cop slamming daughter to ground
For the second time this week, a Mobile police officer has been placed on administrative leave after a video surfaced showing a potential excessive use of force incident.
Video posted to Facebook Tuesday evening appears to show a Mobile police officer slamming a 16-year-old girl onto a concrete sidewalk outside Accel Academy, a charter school where the girl is a student, according to Brittney Pettaway, the girl’s mother.
“I’m so mad and heartbroken,” Pettaway posted along with the video, shot by a woman standing just inside the door of the school.
“I’m so glad somebody was there to record wtf happened to my baby, man,” Pettaway wrote on her Facebook post.
The incident had resulted in a broken toe for her daughter, who suffers from other medical conditions including lupus, the mother told WPMI.
Pettaway said her daughter had called her Tuesday afternoon and said she was being sent home from school for going to the bathroom without permission, according to the report.
“She was crying and screaming on the phone and I was like ‘Makayla, what is wrong with you? What are they doing?’ and she was like ‘Mom help me. He’s hurting my arms. He’s hurting my arms.’ and after she said that she ended up screaming real loud, like he did something to her, and the phone hung up,” Pettaway told the TV station.
After the video went public, the Mobile Police Department issued a statement:
“The Mobile Police Department has just become aware of an incident involving an off-duty police officer working an extra job at 3725 Airport Boulevard, Accel Academy. As we gather more information about the facts of the incident, the officer will be placed on administrative duty pending the outcome of the investigation. Please note that this information is in response to a social media post circulating on Facebook, and no further details are available at this time.”
Pettaway said Tuesday night she had heard from neither the police department nor the school.
In another Facebook post, Pettaway noted the size of the officer involved in comparison to her daughter.
“I never in a million years would have imagined this happening to one of my babies. Like bruh she’s a child. You at least 280 if not more… my baby didn’t deserve that AT ALL,” she wrote.
The incident involving the student surfaced just one day after another Mobile officer was placed on administrative leave after a video was posted to social media showing the officer repeatedly punching a man in the head during an arrest.
Court filings show the officer, identified as Paul Callegari, admitted to the use of excessive force in response to the suspect, Beezer Earl Dubose Jr., grabbing the officer’s testicles.