MIAMI – Video of an aggressive throw by a Miami-Dade Schools police officer shows a Miami Edison Senior High School student being tossed in the air head over heels before landing on the ground.
The incident, all captured on cellphone video, occurred when 15-year-old Ikeria Tate said officers were responding to a fight outside the Little Haiti school’s locker rooms after a football game on Wednesday.
“He should’ve never (done) that,” Tate said. “He had grabbed me and slammed me on the floor and one of them stepped on my hair.”
In the video, Tate is seen being pulled up by the officer while still flailing her arms.
“I wasn’t throwing a punch at him. I was telling him to get off me,” Tate said.
Tate’s mother, Monique Warner, who wasn’t there when the fight broke out, has since seen the video of her daughter’s takedown and feels the officer went too far.
“I feel like he shouldn’t have done that to my child. If anything, you should’ve tried to restrain her in a better way,” Warner said.
In an arrest report, Miami-Dade Schools police said officers were breaking up a fight when Tate intervened, pushed a responding sergeant and then attempted to punch the officer in the face.
The sergeant said that’s when he redirected her to the ground to make an arrest. Tate’s mother believes this action was uncalled for and now wants the officer held accountable.
“He shouldn’t put his hands on nobody’s kids like that. You are supposed to help them. This is why the kids are scared of the law,” Warner said.
We reached out to the district and officials said they’ve seen the video. They say the incident is now being reviewed by the school police department.
As for Tate, she was arrested and charged with battery on a law enforcement officer, resisting arrest, and disrupting a school function.