Police in South Carolina say video exists of a female student striking a police officer during their confrontation earlier this week, a new report says. The video shows the unidentified girl, who is African-American, hitting Deputy Ben Fields amid their struggle Monday at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, S.C., according to The New York Daily News.
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said late Tuesday that his office has the unreleased clip, the third depicting the confrontation the day before.
“[It shows the student] hitting the school resource officer with her fists and striking him,” Leon said.
“Even though [the student] was wrong for disturbing the class, I’m looking at what our deputy did,” he said of Fields.
“[I am] shocked and disturbed,” he added of footage documenting the incident.
Two videos emerged Monday showing Fields aggressively confronting a female student when she refuses to leave a classroom.
Fields, who is white, then overturns the girl’s desk as she ignores his orders.
He is then shown dragging the student across the room before commanding her to put her hands behind her back. Fields is currently on leave following the standoff.
The Department of Justice announced Tuesday that it is opening a civil rights investigation of the incident alongside the FBI’s local field office.
“The Columbia FBI Field Office, the Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina have opened a civil rights investigation into the circumstances surrounding the arrests,” the DOJ said in a statement.
“The FBI will collect all available facts and evidence in order to determine whether a federal law was violated.”
Several 2016 Democratic presidential candidates have since condemned the conflict for hurting the relationship between students and law enforcement.
“There is no excuse for violence inside a school,” tweeted Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton.
“The #AssaultatSpringValleyHigh is unacceptable – schools should be safe places,” she added, using a trending Twitter hashtag for news about the incident.
Former Gov. Martin O’Malley (D-Md.), meanwhile, said that the event concerns him as both a father and as an education reformer.
“I would be ripped ballistic if someone did that to my daughter,” he said of the video.
“That’s pretty outrageous behavior. I mean, that’s not appropriate behavior for any adult to treat a kid.”
