As a video showing white deputies using aggressive force on a 15-year-old black student sparks national outrage, Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony tried to calm the fears of black leaders Saturday.
The Sheriff’s Office posted a one-minute clip on Twitter of Tony telling the Broward County Black Elected Officials group his department would conduct a “very tactful” investigation.
Video footage, which has been shared through social media, shows two white deputies take a black student down, bang his forehead into the pavement and repeatedly punch him in the head. The encounter took place in Tamarac outside a McDonald’s at 8375 N. Pine Island Road, about a half-mile from J. P. Taravella High School in Coral Springs.
“That’s the most electrifying and dangerous situation for a law enforcement administrator to handle,’ said Tony, who was appointed in January as Broward’s first black sheriff. “Any time a white deputy is involved in contact with using force on a black youth, this thing blows up.”
The meeting with the black leaders had been planned before the encounter, Tony said. The video did not include their reactions to his comments.
The deputies involved included Christopher Krickovich and Sgt. Greg LaCerra. Krickovich is on restricted assignment pending the investigation. The status of LaCerra is unclear.
Krickovich said in a police report that deputies were outnumbered by about 200 students “who were yelling, threatening us and surrounding us, I had to act quickly, fearing I would get stuck or having a student potentially grab weapons off of my belt or vest.”
The encounter has received national attention.
“So wrong!! Hurts me to my soul!!” Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James tweeted. “To think that could be my sons. Scary times man.”
CNN commentator Keith Boykin tweeted, “This is police brutality.”
A police report indicated that the teen didn’t suffer any serious injuries.
Krickovich wrote in a report that a 15-year-old boy in a red tank top approached the deputies while they were arresting another boy on a trespassing charge. The 15-year-old “took an aggressive stance” toward LaCerra, “bladed his body and began clenching his fists,” Krickovich wrote. At that point, one of the deputies pepper-sprayed and “quickly jumped on the male with the red tank top,” Krickovich wrote, saying he was fearing for his safety.
School Board member Rosalind Osgood called for the deputies to be removed; county Mayor Mark Bogen said some form of discipline was needed. “There’s been a large cry of just go out and fire them. Just get rid of them,” Tony told the black leaders. “You all know it doesn’t work like that. It’s going to be done the right way.”
The incident comes as many black leaders are still angry that Gov. Rick DeSantis removed one of their allies, former Sheriff Scott Israel. Tony tried to persuade them Saturday that this investigation would be handled appropriately.
“I’m not going to sit and brush things under the rug,” he said. “The facts are what they are. We need them in a formal written documentation saying we’ve done our due diligence and done it under the letter of the law.”
stravis@sunsentinel.com, 561-243-6637 or Twitter @smtravis