A North Carolina police officer was placed on paid administrative leave Tuesday after videos surfaced showing him picking up a high school student and slamming her to the ground.
The footage, which was shared widely on social media, shows a resource officer at Rolesville High School lifting a student by the torso and throwing her onto the floor as a crowd of other students and school employees watch. The police department in Rolesville, which is about 15 miles northeast of Raleigh, identified the officer as Ruben De Los Santos and said he was responding to a fight that broke out between two female students in the cafeteria shortly after 7 a.m.
The officer will remain on paid leave while the department investigates the incident. Police said they asked the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation to conduct a third-party review, but they did not provide any further details.
“We will work diligently to review any and all pertinent information so that we provide an accurate account of the events,” Rolesville Police Chief Bobby Langston said in a statement. “We ask the community and all members involved to be patient while we investigate this matter.”
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