Texas Pool-Party Cop Let ‘Emotions’ Overcome Him, Lawyer Says

The Texas police officer who was caught on video slamming a 14-year-old bikini-clad girl to the ground “allowed his emotions to get the better of him,” his lawyer said Wednesday.

The attorney for Eric Casebolt, whose resignation was announced earlier Wednesday, told the media the police corporal had earlier answered two suicide calls that “took an emotional toll” on him, CNN reports. Jane Bushkin said the officer “regrets that his conduct portrayed him and his department in a negative light,” and relayed his apology to “all who were offended” by his actions.

In a video posted to YouTube on Saturday, Casebolt can be seen swearing and waving his gun at a group of black teenagers, tackling one girl—who is wearing only a bikini—to the ground, and placing his knees on her back.

Casebolt was called to the scene in McKinney, Texas amid reports of fighting among the teenagers. Some at the scene later accused him of racial bias in his reaction; on Monday, hundreds protested outside an elementary school in McKinney. Bushkin denied Wednesday that he had deliberately targeted minorities. “His actions were only in attempt to investigate the reports of violent assaults,” she said.

[CNN]