EUSTIS, Fla. – The Lake County Sheriff’s Office says a deputy was justified in using his Taser on a Eustis High School student while trying to break up a fight on Tuesday.
According to the incident report, Deputy Billy Brown, who was working as the school resource deputy for the freshman Courtright Campus, arrived at the cafeteria shortly before noon on Tuesday to find a girl chasing a boy around a table.
News 6 is not naming the student who was involved in this incident at this time.
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Records show when Brown tried to stop the girl, she began punching him. The deputy said in his report he tried to talk her down but was hit in the face.
The deputy then wrestled the girl to the ground but the struggle continued, according to the report.
This is where cell phone video, seen below picks up the events inside the cafeteria. The video is graphic and may be disturbing to some viewers. News 6 has blurred the video to protect the identities of the students seen in the video.
The video appears to show the student slapping at the deputy’s face and kneeing him, which is also described within the incident report.
The video ends when both the deputy and the student get back to their feet and the deputy draws his Taser.
According to the report, Brown gave the student verbal commands to stop, threatening to use the stun gun if she did not listen.
The deputy then deployed the stun gun twice, according to the report. Brown said the first cartridge did not work because one of the probes got caught on the student’s sleeve.
Once cuffed, Brown said he called for paramedics who then looked over the girl and removed the probes from the stun gun.
According to the report, the student later apologized to Brown claiming she “blacked out” in a fit of anger.
Brown said he later reviewed surveillance video which showed the girl arguing with two boys, hitting at least one of them, prior to his arrival. No information was provided on what led up to the fight between the students.
The girl faces two counts of battery on a law enforcement officer and one count of resisting with violence.
The sheriff’s office said the incident was reviewed and the deputy’s actions were deemed “lawful and within agency policy.”
Brown has been a deputy in Lake County since 2006, with no disciplinary actions, and working in the School Resource Unit since April 2019, the sheriff’s office said.