El Paso Police Address Cop Who Pulled Gun on Kids

A mother has also accused an officer of choking her son
By Josh Gardner,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 9, 2018 4:49 PM CDT
Department Responds to Video of Officer Pulling Gun on Kids
An officer holds a gun in a stock photo.   (Getty Images/CHAIWATPHOTOS)

A Texas police department has issued a response to viral video that appears to show one of its own pulling a gun out on a group of kids. Per WLOS, the El Paso PD held a press conference Saturday about the incident, video of which began making the rounds on Friday, propelling the case into the national spotlight. “The officer in question will remain on desk duty until the investigation is complete,” Dionne Mack, the deputy city manager for public safety, said at the news conference. The video begins as police have already begun interacting with the group of kids. According to the El Paso Times, much of the footage shows the kids yelling at the officers, one of whom then briefly pulls out a gun. The officer in question, who has not been named, has been a member of the department for four years.

Sgt. Enrique Carrillo said at the news conference that officers in the video were responding to a "criminal trespassing in progress" on Thursday. Two arrests, one of a minor and the other of an adult, were made at the time for the charge of interfering with the duties of a police officer. In the wake of the controversy, the mother of one of the children has accused one of the officers of choking her son before the recording started. Per the AP, Elizabeth Flores claims the video started after the officer choked one of her sons and forced him to the ground. Flores says the video shows two of her sons being taken into custody. "They didn’t see the beginning. They didn’t see my son getting choked," she says. "That’s why the kids were agitated." The video has now been viewed millions of times on Facebook. (More El Paso stories.)

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