ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – An Orange County school resource deputy who yanked a girl’s head in an act caught on camera has been charged with battery, according to the Orange-Osceola State Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors announced Tuesday that a charge was filed on Jan. 30 against Harry Reid, a former Orange County Sheriff’s Office employee.
The video, which circulated online in November 2019, shows then 13-year-old Wilmica Edmond screaming and crying as Reid and another deputy maneuver her hands behind her back. Then, as Reid is escorting Edmond away, he uses his left hand to grab the back of the girl’s head and yank it back, the video shows.
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“I’m tired of this (expletive),” Reid said in the footage.
Records show the incident at the apartment complex stemmed from a fight between two groups of girls at Westridge Middle School earlier that same day.
Edmond was briefly detained before she was released to a parent but she was never arrested, according to authorities.
She said she suffered neck pain and trouble sleeping after the incident.
Orange County Sheriff John Mina said at the time that Reid was removed from the school after the video came to light and then terminated. An internal investigation was conducted and the results were sent to the State Attorney’s Office to determine whether charges were appropriate.
“There’s no doubt in mind that his actions were excessive and I didn’t see the need for him to put his hands on a middle school child. To me, it looked like he lost control and his actions were totally inappropriate,” Mina said late last year.