Police officers indicted for slamming a 14-year-old boy to the floor at school

A grand jury in Louisiana has indicted two police officers who allegedly slammed a 14-year-old student to the floor at his middle school. On Friday, Anthony “Kip” Dupre and Dan Cipriano, formerly of the Brusly Police Department, were charged with malfeasance (wrongdoing) and simple battery, respectively, for an Oct. 5 altercation at Brusly Middle School.

The student’s lawyer, Kwame Asante, told the Advocate that before the police encounter, the boy was put in detention for swearing on the playground and then argued with a teacher over the length of his punishment.

In a security video of the alleged crime, sent to WAFB, the boy tried to leave the office when Dupre entered, and the officer slammed him to the floor, his book bag hitting a desk on the way down. After two minutes, Dupre raised the kid off the ground in a headlock and threw him down again. Cipriano then entered and helped Dupre handcuff the student. Once the boy was restrained, Cipriano slammed him forward-facing onto the desk, and the officers walked him out of the room.

Dupre says he got physical when the boy reached for his gun. “I will tell you there is no evidence, no findings that the young man reached for any weapon or tried to take an officer’s weapon. That’s not in the evidence,” Scott Chabert, an assistant district attorney in West Baton Rouge Parish, told WAFB.

The Louisiana State Police Department investigated whether the officers used excessive force. “State police did not find clear-cut felony criminal actions by these officers. However, as promised, that’s why we have grand juries in West Baton Rouge Parrish,” Chabert told WAFB. The case will now go to trial. The boy’s attorney, Kwame Asante, who did not return Yahoo Lifestyle’s request for comment, called the minor charges against the officers a “slap on the wrist.”

“This young man will still be dealing with this for a long time,” Asante told the Advocate, adding that he sustained “ongoing physical injuries” and has attended counseling. His grandmother Doris Snearl is particularly determined to hold the officers accountable. Representatives of the West Baton Rouge Schools and the Brusly Police Department did not return Yahoo Lifestyle’s requests for comment.

The Louisiana State Police Department tells Yahoo Lifestyle, “The LSP investigative report has been turned over to the West Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney’s Office for their handling of the case. No further information is available at this time.” The officers resigned in November, according to the Advocate.

Chabert and Tony Clayton, the district attorney’s lead prosecutor, did not return Yahoo Lifestyle’s requests for comment.

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