Lee county sheriffs department……. Explain this @leesheriff Retweet this‼️ pic.twitter.com/2MEtST1GqV
— Bryce Herrera (@brycherrera1) February 15, 2019
A deputy in Lee County, Florida is on leave after he was allegedly caught on video straight up elbowing a detained 17-year-old boy in the face. No one says anything during a 10-second video posted to Twitter on Thursday. The teen has his hands behind his back, surrounded by three deputies. One of them rinses his face with a water hose, while another holds him by the arm. As this happens, the third law enforcement officer walks up and elbows the boy without provocation. The other deputies don’t immediately seem to respond to this. It’s unclear what happened next, as the video cuts off.
“They already had him,” said neighbor Bobbye Lathan in an NBC-2 report. “Why did you need to walk up and just elbow him? I don’t understand that. It’s wrong.”
The 17-year-old in question–nicknamed “Suevo”–was wanted for allegedly fleeing a traffic stop on Tuesday. He has a pretty lengthy criminal history, with at least 12 arrests. Nonetheless, the video shows no reason why the deputy would have needed to hit him to take him into custody.
“Suevo is definitely a troublemaker,” friend Clayton Welsh told the outlet, but he added, “There’s people who do worse than him, and don’t get abused by cops, so why should he.”
The Lee County Sheriff’s Office responded to the video on Friday. They said they’re looking into it.
The matter is under investigation.
— Lee County Sheriff (@leesheriff) February 15, 2019
The deputy is reportedly now on administrative leave. His identity remains publicly unknown.
[Screengrab via @brycherrera1]
