@AttorneyCrump/Twitter
- The Florida school resource officer who was recorded slamming a Black student to the ground during an arrest will not face charges.
- The State Attorney's Office made the announcement on Tuesday, WKMG-TV reported.
- Civil rights attorney Ben Crump said, "the state attorney has failed to get justice for Taylor."
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The school resource officer who was recorded slamming a Black teen on the ground at an Osceola County, Florida high school earlier this year will not face charges, the state attorney's office said.
"After a thorough review of the evidence, and the applicable law in this matter (the independent review) has concluded that officer Fournier's use of force did not violate any laws of the state of Florida," Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell said at a news conference on Tuesday, WKMG-TV reported. "As such, there will be no criminal charges filed in this matter."
A graphic video circulated online in January shows the officer, later identified as Deputy Ethan Fournier of the Osceola County Sheriff's Office, throwing Liberty High School student Taylor Bracey on the ground during an arrest.
The sheriff's office said the officer was trying to stop a fight between Bracey and another student. However, one of the attorney's representing the Bracey family, Ben Crump, said it was a "verbal altercation" in an interview with NBC News at the time.
Following the incident, the teen's mother, Jamesha Bracey, said her child was "traumatized" and suffered from memory loss and headaches.
Officials said that Fournier was placed on paid leave amid a criminal investigation from the Department of Florida Law Enforcement. According to WKMG-TV, the findings were then passed over to the State Attorney's Office.
In response, the family's attorneys released a statement opposing the State Attorney's Office decision.
"The facts of this case are laid out for everyone to see in that disturbing video. A Black teenager was violently body-slammed to the ground, knocked unconscious, and handcuffed at her own school by Deputy Fournier," the statement said. "That kind of force is aggressive, unacceptable, and not at all what it looks like to de-escalate a situation between high school girls. Taylor is still feeling the repercussions from Fournier's actions and likely will for the rest of her life."
-Ben Crump Law, PLLC (@BenCrumpLaw) August 18, 2021
The statement continued: "This disgusting incident certainly sends a message to our young people of color - police officers should not be trusted, and 'protect and serve' is nothing more than a meaningless slogan. While the state attorney has failed to get justice for Taylor, we won't stop until we do."