Knowing he was surrounded by cameras, a Texas cop didn’t let that stop him from tripping and shoving high school students as they were rushing onto a soccer field after their school won a state championship Saturday night.
But now that he’s been exposed by the local media, the Georgetown Police Department assured it has “taken the information and will be forwarding it to internal affairs for review and investigation” – which generally means they will try to shove it down the memory hole until everybody forgets about it.
However, considering this will probably get nationwide attention today, they will probably resort to the reliable excuse of “safety reasons” to justify his actions.
After all, if the cop didn’t trip and shove the students when he did, they may have tripped and fallen on their own as they celebrated Vandergrift’s first state soccer championship.
According to KXAN:
As you see students rush the field after the win, a uniformed Georgetown police officer can be seen sticking his leg out to trip a high school student. He then tries to trip another student.
Then, YouTube video shot by a student at the game shows one of them limping off the field.
Cell phone video sent to ReportIt@KXAN.com also shows the officer pushing two girls off the field.
KXAN spoke to the 15-year-old student who watched all of this unfold while shooting the video on his phone.
“He should’ve used better judgement,” Rohan Gupta said. “We’re high schoolers just trying to have some fun after our team won.”
UPDATE: The cop who did the tripping has been identified as George Bermudez – who was named Officer of the Year last year – but has now been placed on administrative leave, paid, of course, but likely ruining his chances for a repeat award.
According to KVUE:
“We’ve been inundated all day with not only media but concerned parents, not only from Central Texas/Georgetown but actually across the nation,” said Georgetown Police Captain Roland Waits.
Capt. Waits said last year they named Officer Bermudez Officer of the Year, now he’s under investigation for misconduct.
“So naturally this is very alarming and concerning to us,” he explained.
“It wasn’t like they were rowdy. They were just celebrating,” said parent Lori Digesualda. “I hope that this doesn’t overshadow all of the hard work and the dedication that the team, parents and coaches put in.”
It was a sweet victory, turned sour. Now these parents have just one question: What was the wrong doing?
Bermudez has been with the Georgetown Police Department since 2005, and he is assigned to the Community Resources Unit. He’s now on paid administrative leave.