McKinney Police officer resigns from force after pool party incident

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Eric Casebolt, the McKinney police officer whose actions at a pool party disturbance last Friday went viral in a YouTube video, has resigned from the force reports WFAA.

McKinney Police Officer Resigns

Casebolt’s resignation was confirmed Tuesday by attorney Jane Bishkin, who told the newsstation that the decision was made after a meeting with the department’s internal affairs unit to review possible charges he could face.

Casebolt, a 10-year veteran of the McKinney Police Department in Texas, was placed on administrative leave Sunday after a 7-minute video of the incident at a Craig Ranch community pool gained traction on the Internet. That clip has now been viewed almost 9.5 million times.

Viral footage

The footage shows Cpl. Casebolt, who is white, aggressively responding to the disturbance call, using profanity with Black teenagers, unholstering his weapon and pointing it toward the unarmed teens, and restraining a 15-year-old girl in a swimsuit by forcing her to the ground and placing his knee on her back.

Many parents who children attend the pool party said the police actions were uncalled for.

The pool party took place in a neighborhood that, according to people who live there, is usually marked by friendly relations among black, white, Hispanic and Asian residents.

The McKinney Police Department said that officers arrived at the pool around 7:15 p.m. on Friday, responding to a call about a “disturbance involving multiple juveniles at the location, who do not live in the area or have permission to be there, refusing to leave.” The department, the statement added, received “several additional calls related to this incident advising that juveniles were now actively fighting.”

But Dominique Alexander, the president of the Next Generation Action Network, a civil rights group, said that the youths “had every right to be there.”

In a video posted to YouTube on Sunday, a black teenager named Tatiana said her family was hosting a cookout for friends when a woman insulted them, prompting a 14-year-old family friend to respond.

Tatiana said a white woman had then told her: “You need to go back to where you’re from” and to “go back to your Section 8 home.

Tatiana said that she had replied, “Excuse me,” and that then another white woman hit her in the face and “both women attacked” her.