A 15-year-old student at a Chicago area special needs school got a lesson in police brutality.
Marshawn Pitts, who attends the Academy for Learning in the south suburb of Dolton, was slammed into a locker and thrown to the ground by an unidentified police officer as he was taking Pitts to the principal’s office for an untucked shirt.
A security camera installed in one of the school’s halls caught the entire confrontation, which ended with a broken nose for Pitts, who lay motionless while the officer sat on him.
The fight allegedly broke out after the officer asked the student to tuck his shirt in, a policy enforced in the school.
The boy’s attorney, Ed Manzke, says the video will help Pitts’ cause.
“We’re fortunate that it was caught on videotape,” Manzke told the Chicago Tribune. “There is nothing the officer can say that could justify the beating.”
The video shows the police officer and the student walking down a hall.
After saying something to a woman as he walked by, Pitts is violently pushed against the lockers by the officer, who then proceeds to pin the student to the floor.
As the fight starts, students in adjacent classrooms try to walk out of class, but are blocked by other teachers.
Once the student is on the floor, two other men run up to the officer, but it’s unclear if they were trying to block or help him.