Lawyer: McKinney Cop Who Tackled Girl Was Distressed After Suicide Calls
The attorney for disgraced former McKinney police officer Eric Casebolt said today that her client “never intended to mistreat” anyone and “regrets that his conduct portrayed him and his department in a negative light.”
Jane Bushkin said Casebolt violently detained a 15-year-old girl and pointed his service weapon at several unarmed black teenagers because he was distressed after responding to two suicide calls earlier in the day. From NBC News:
She said Casebolt was working a evening shift that began with a call to an apartment complex where a man had shot himself in the head in front of his family. Casebolt helped officers take witness statements, photographed the body and consoled the man’s wife, Bushkin said.
From there, Casebolt responded to a report of a teenaged girl threatening to jump off her parents’ roof, Bushkin said. He calmed the girl down and made sure she was taken to the hospital, she said.
“With all that had happened that day, he allowed his emotions to get the better of him,” she said, according to Reuters. “The video everyone has seen only depicts a small part of Eric’s actions that day.”
Casebolt resigned yesterday, three days after video of his brutal treatment of black teenagers at a McKinney, Texas, pool was published on YouTube.
