Round Rock PD Officer grabs Student by the throat before restraining

October 12, 2015 in News, Video by RBN

Round Rock Police School Resource Officers speaking to a student, Gyasi Hughes, at Round Rock High School. At about 27 seconds in, an officer can be seen grabbing Gyasi by the throat and taking him to the ground. Another officer present assists in restraining Gyasi as onlookers react.

The Round Rock Police Department released the following statement on the incident:On Oct. 8, at approximately 2:15 p.m. Round Rock Police School Resource Officers (SROs) were requested by Round Rock High School Administrators to assist with a fight in the cafeteria between two male high school students. The administrator stated she was unable to de-escalate the fight and needed police assistance.Two Round Rock Police Department SROs responded to break up the fight.

One male student refused to comply with an administrator and was attempting to continue to fight the other student. SROs began speaking with the student to calm him down and to de-escalate the situation by walking him into another area of the building. The student refused to calm down and was attempting to get passed [sic] the SROs to the location of the other student to continue with the altercation.

After repeated attempts to calm the non-compliant student, and stop him from going after the other student, officers were forced to detain him for his safety and the safety of others.The student later calmed down and was released from detention at Round Rock High School with no criminal charges filed at this time. This incident is currently under review by the police department staff.

Round Rock ISD also issued the following statement:The safety of all students is our top priority in Round Rock ISD. Our partnerships with Round Rock Police Department and Williamson County Sheriff’s Department play an important role in creating the safest educational environment for our students, teachers, staff and administrators. Our Round Rock High School administrative team is working with RRPD regarding an incident involving two students Thursday afternoon to make sure proper procedures were followed.

We look forward to the continued partnership between our public safety officials in evaluating this incident and in our continued support of safe and secure schools. The Gyasi says he got into a fight with another student over his prescription goggles used to play football.

Gyasi says the other student wouldn’t give them back, and Gyasi grabbed the other student’s book bag to look for the goggles. Gyasi also says he was not trying to get past officers to keep fighting other student, but that he was upset over the incident with the goggles and the police kept “getting in his face.”