A sheriff’s deputy who tased a student in the cafeteria at Eustis High School in the Central Florida town of Eustis on Tuesday, Jan. 26, did nothing wrong, according to the sheriff’s office.
Viral video posted to TikTok the following day shows Lake County Deputy Billy Brown, who serves as a school resource officer at the school, tasing an unidentified female student. Brown told Click Orlando he tased the student after arriving and finding the girl chasing a male student around a cafeteria table.
He added the girl would not calm down when he tried to intervene and began punching him, ultimately striking him in the face and kneeing him in the side before he wrestled her to the ground.
The video shows Brown and the student tussling and the student slapping him. Then she gets up and Brown pulls out his taser, to which she replied, “Do not touch me,” before the video on Click cuts off.
In Brown’s report, he said he continued to try and deescalate the student’s aggressive behavior and when she wouldn’t comply, he tased her.
A separate video posted to Twitter by reporter Megan Cruz of WFTV shows the moment Brown tased the student. He pushes her back before deploying his taser twice. The student hits the wall, then collapses on the ground before Brown walks over to her.
Afterward, Brown said he called for paramedics, who examined the student before he took the taser’s probes out. The report also claims the student apologized to Brown, stating she’d “blacked out” in a fit of anger.
Now the student is facing one count of resisting with violence and two counts of battery on a law enforcement officer, Click Orlando reported.
After reviewing the incident, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office said Brown’s handling of the situation was “lawful and within agency policy.”
Social media users condemned Brown’s use of force. “If she was white the cop wouldn’t have treated her so rough,” Twitter user @MuhammadSalaa19 wrote.
“It’s the literal definition of abuse. If you as a parent would you try to do this to your child. You would be locked under a prison and never get out. Society would abandon you. But put a badge on it and everybody gets a little less concerned. I swear I’ll lose my s*** if it ever happens to my child,” user @CampNoNet tweeted.
“Welcome to the Florida Law Enforcement… I hate it here,” added user @OmegaWoody.
