Hundreds of demonstrators have rallied outside a McKinney, Texas, elementary school in protest of a white police officer's actions against a mostly black group of teens at a pool party.
Some who gathered in the Dallas suburb held signs Monday that included the phrases, "My skin color is not a crime," and, "Don't tread on our kids."
A few dozen addressed the crowd through a bullhorn, including Derrick Golden, a pastor from McKinney who met earlier with the city's police Chief Greg Conley. He said Conley "responded appropriately" after the officer was seen in a video pushing a 15-year-old girl to the ground and pointing his gun at other teens. The officer is on administrative leave.
But Golden said Officer David Eric Casebolt should be terminated because of the profanities he used and the fact that he brandished his gun.
The demonstrators marched a mile from the school to the Craig Ranch North Community Pool, where Friday's incident occurred.
About a dozen counterprotesters held signs supporting police.
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7:45 p.m. (CDT)
McKinney has been the target of lawsuits accusing the Dallas suburb and its housing authority of racially segregating public housing.
One long-running lawsuit filed in 2008 accused the McKinney Housing Authority of restricting federally subsidized public housing for low-income families to older neighborhoods east of U.S. 75. The lawsuit pointed out that in the Dallas area, 85 percent of those receiving so-called Section 8 housing vouchers are African-Americans.
The 2000 census found McKinney's east side was where 68 percent of the city's black population lived, while neighborhoods west of U.S 75 were 86 percent white. In 2007, 2,057 of the 2,485 housing units run by landlords willing to accept federal rent subsidy vouchers were on the east side.
The lawsuit was settled with a consent decree in 2012 that aimed to open up the west side to subsidized housing.
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6 p.m. (CDT)
A teenager who filmed a white police officer pulling a gun on black youths and pinning another black girl to the ground at a pool party says the officer "was out of line."
Brandon Brooks tells television station KDFW he was among the few white people at the pool party Friday in McKinney.
He says his "heart did drop" after seeing the officer pull out a gun. He says he was afraid someone would get shot but knew he had to keep filming.
Brooks' video was posted online and went viral over the weekend. Police have placed Officer David Eric Casebolt on administrative leave while they investigate.
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5:30 p.m. (CDT)
A city spokeswoman has confirmed the identity of a white police officer seen in a cellphone video subduing a teenage black girl at a pool party in suburban Dallas.
McKinney city spokeswoman Anna Clark said Monday the officer under administrative leave is David Eric Casebolt.
A viral video shows him pushing a bikini-clad girl to the ground on Friday and drawing a gun on other black teens.
A record from the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement shows the 41-year-old officer joined the McKinney police force in August 2005. He earlier served almost two years as a Texas state trooper.
Casebolt took eight hours of cultural diversity training at Collin County Community College in February 2009. He has also taken courses in racial profiling and use of force.
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4:55 p.m. (CDT)
The white police officer seen in a cellphone video subduing a teenage black girl at a pool party is a former Texas state trooper who has taken cultural diversity training.
McKinney police haven't identified the officer who pushed the bikini-clad girl to the ground on Friday and drew a gun on other black teens. However, local news media have identified the officer as David Eric Casebolt.
A record from the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement shows the 41-year-old officer joined the police force in the Dallas suburb in August 2005. He earlier served almost two years as a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper.
Casebolt took eight hours of cultural diversity training at Collin County Community College in February 2009. He has also taken courses in racial profiling and use of force.
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2:45 p.m. (CDT)
The mayor of a Texas city where an officer was seen on video pushing a 15-year-old girl to the ground during a pool party says city leaders "take this matter very seriously."
McKinney Mayor Brian Loughmiller made the comments to about 40 people who gathered for a previously scheduled city council meeting. Loughmiller said, "We really need to come together as a community."
Nikki Perez, a black resident who attended the meeting but not the pool party, alleged police seemed to be targeting black teenagers over white ones. She criticized the officer for using profanity and drawing his gun at one point.
Authorities haven't named the officer, who was placed on administrative leave.
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This story has been corrected to show the girl is 15 years old, not 14.
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2:25 p.m. (CDT)
The ACLU of Texas is asking police to release the entire incident report and a 911 call related to a pool party in which a McKinney officer pushed a 15-year-old girl to the ground and pointed his gun at other teens.
A statement the group sent Monday says the incident — seen on video — "appears to be a textbook case of overuse of force." The statement adds that "in too many cities, there are two kinds of policing and we saw both in this incident: one serving and protecting the white community and one criminalizing and controlling communities of color."
The officer has been placed on administrative leave. The ACLU of Texas also called on the McKinney Police Department to name the officer and release his disciplinary history.
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This story has been corrected to show the girl is 15 years old, not 14.
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12:05 a.m. (CDT)
A black man who says he saw an apparently white police officer restraining a black, bikini-clad teenage girl at a suburban Dallas community pool party says it wasn't a racial incident.
Benét Embry, who watched the disturbance unfold in McKinney on Friday night, told The Associated Press on Monday that the officer was belligerent and profane, but that police were right to try "to defuse the situation."
He characterized it as "a teenage party that got out of hand."
Embry says about 130 kids, most of them black, turned up for the party. He says some of the partygoers jumped a fence to access the pool, causing a disturbance and sparking fights. He says only seven or eight of them were troublemakers.
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