A Louisiana police officer was filmed pinning a 13-year-old Black boy to the ground with his arm around the teen’s neck

• A Baton Rouge police officer’s actions during the Sunday arrest of Black teenager are under scrutiny.
• The video shows the officer pinning the teen to the ground, with his arm around the boy’s neck.
• The officer in question had not been placed on leave as of Monday afternoon, according to WBRZ.
• Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Video of a Baton Rouge, Louisiana, police officer violently arresting a 13-year-old Black boy on Sunday has gone viral on social media, prompting an investigation by his department.

The video shows the unnamed officer pinning the teenager to the ground, with his arm around the boy’s neck. Insider has chosen not to republish the video and is blurring the boy’s face in screenshots.

“You’re choking him!” a bystander can be heard yelling in the video.

At the end of the 23-second clip, another officer is seen coming to help lift the boy up and put him in handcuffs. 

In a statement, Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome said she had seen the video of the “concerning encounter” and promised a “prompt, transparent review,” according to The Advocate.

Broome said she requested that police bodycam footage of the boy's arrest be released, but that will require court approval since the incident involves a juvenile, WBRZ reports. 

Baton Rouge Police Chief Murphy Paul said his department is investigating whether the officer in question followed protocol in the boy's arrest, according to WBRZ.

As of Monday afternoon, the officer had not been placed on leave, WBRZ reported.

The department did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment on the arrest and the officer's status.

The police chief explained that officers received a call on Sunday about a group of teens arguing, with some holding baseball bats, according to WAFB. Officers were able to calm the children and left without incident, the outlet reported.

However, the fight resumed 30 minutes later and officers returned to the scene, where they subsequently arrested a 13-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl, according to WAFB. 

According to WBRZ, the boy was charged with resisting arrest, battery of a police officer, and disturbing the police, while the girl was charged with resisting arrest.

Only the boy was booked into juvenile detention, but was released to his family hours later, according to The Advocate and WBRZ .

The boy's family has hired the civil-rights attorney Ron Haley to represent him, according to local reports.

"If that officer did not have a badge or a uniform on, and was an adult on the ground with a child in that manner, he'd be arrested," Haley said, according to WAFB. "Nowhere should an unarmed 13-year-old, who is not a danger to himself or others, be treated like a grown-up."

Haley called for the bodycam footage to be released immediately. 

"I appreciate the swift response from Mayor Broome and the promises made by Chief Paul. However, too many times in our community we see obvious police misconduct go unchecked and unpunished," Haley said in a statement, according to The Advocate. 

The Baton Rouge Police Department has faced multiple race-related scandals in recent years, including letting a white man - who admitted to killing a Black panhandler - go after questioning last August. In February 2019, a photo surfaced showing BRPD detectives wearing blackface in 1993.