Az Central reports: A Phoenix Police Department officer is under investigation after a video surfaced online that appears to show him roughly shoving a 15-year-old girl during a police call, authorities said Wednesday.
Patrick Larrison, a six-year member of the force, has been put on administrative leave pending criminal and internal investigations, said a department spokesman, Sgt. Trent Crump
The video shows a girl in a physical fight with a woman, whom Crump identified as the girl's mother, in a parking lot. The girl strikes the woman in the face and then walks away. An officer responding to the scene approaches her from behind as she is walking, shoves her into a wall and knocks her off her feet. He handcuffs her and then walks her to a police vehicle.
"All you see (in the video) is the force that is used to affect this arrest," Crump said, "and at face value, that certainly appears . . . outside of the boundaries of what we would consider to be reasonable."
The incident occurred in January, Crump said. The girl reportedly was serving alcohol out of a water bottle to other students, was belligerent and drunk, and was being removed from school after assaulting a teacher, he said. Her mother had called the police, Crump said.
The girl was charged with aggravated assault, Crump said. According to another department spokesman, Sgt. Steve Martos, the girl had no injuries.
Larrison has no history of force or use of force incidents with the department's Professional Standards Bureau, Crump said.
Police use force daily in their jobs, but the video suggests Larrison may have used an "unlawful amount of force," he said. Investigators will determine whether there is evidence of aggravated assault.
The video was uploaded to YouTube on March 20, two months after the incident reportedly occurred. It did not come to police attention until Tuesday night, when a department employee spotted the video on the Internet and notified a supervisor, Crump said.
"It is surprising to us this incident was not brought forward to us (earlier)," he said, especially because there were numerous people on the scene, including staff members of the girl's school and at least one other police officer.
Police will investigate whether other officers at the scene knew of the incident and whether they reported it accordingly, Crump said.
The incident occurred in the parking lot of a business adjacent to the Ombudsman Charter School near 40th Street and Thomas Road, Crump said.
Larrison was placed on administrative leave Wednesday afternoon and the juvenile division of the Maricopa County Attorney's Office was notified, authorities said. Larrison was assigned to the Central City Precinct.
Man who touches a woman is a coward. My sister's 15 and i swear, if any body did this to her, whether cop or not, i'd put them in the ground. S*** like this p***** me off! F*****' coward!
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