A Florida sheriff’s deputy who worked as a school resource officer was arrested today for grabbing a 15-year-old girl by the neck and slamming her to the ground.
Broward County sheriff’s deputy Willard Miller was charged with felony child abuse without great bodily hard, Sheriff Tony Gary said during a press conference Tuesday morning.
The arrest comes less than a week after another Broward sheriff’s deputy was fired for beating a man who was handcuffed to a bed in an incident that was also caught on video. That deputy, Jorge Sobrino, is still facing a misdemeanor battery charge.
The latest incident took place September 25 at Cross Creek School in Pompano Beach. Miller turned himself in Tuesday morning and has been placed on unpaid suspension.
The surveillance video shows the girl tapped the deputy behind his knee while he was texting, causing the knee to slightly buckle. The video shows the deputy had to wait an entire minute before attacking the girl because another man had stepped into the room immediately after the student touched him.
Watch the video above that shows the initial contact at the :40 second mark and the body slam about a minute later. Below is Broward Sheriff Gary Tony’s press conference. Also below is the video of Sobrino punching the handcuffed inmate.
“I’m tired of it,” Sheriff Tony said. “I don’t want to spend time standing here about disciplinary actions for a very small population of people who break outside of what they’re supposed to be doing. But I’m going to fix it.”
Tony, who is still listed as an “interim” sheriff, took over the department in January after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis removed the previous sheriff, Scott Israel, for blundering the response to the Parkland school shooting last year.
