16-year-old girl hospitalized after getting body-slammed by San Bernardino sheriff's deputy during fight
A 16-year-old girl is recovering from her injuries after being body-slammed by a San Bernardino County sheriff's deputy Friday night during a fight at a high school football game.
Video of the fight, which circulated on social media, shows a deputy slamming a girl, later identified by her family as Faith Jeffers, to the ground before a teenage boy tangles with deputies.
About 6:28 p.m., deputies from the sheriff's Victorville station responded to a fight at Victor Valley High School during a football game, according to a Sheriff's Department news release.
The first deputy to arrive encountered multiple people involved in the fight and deployed pepper balls to try to disperse the crowd, but that wasn't successful. According to the Sheriff's Department, the 16-year-old girl grabbed the pepper ball launcher after deputies deployed another round.
"A deputy pulled the female away causing her to land on the ground," according to the release.
The 16-year-old boy then punched one of the deputies in the face, prompting the deputies to arrest him. The girl was hospitalized for her injuries. The male teen was booked at High Desert Juvenile Hall, and a report will be forwarded to the district attorney's office to consider charges against both teens.
Priscilla Jeffers, the girl's mother, told KTLA-TV Channel 5 that the deputy threw her daughter to the ground "with no remorse." Jeffers also said that her daughter was getting bullied by a girl from a different high school and that the fight resulted after the girl showed up to confront Faith during the football game.
Faith was hospitalized for a fractured shoulder and back and head trauma, and was discharged early Sunday, her mother told The Times.
Jeffers said she is considering legal action but couldn't disclose more. She also wants to pull her daughter out of Victor Valley High School and have her either transferred to a different school or home-schooled. It could take six months to a year for Faith to recover fully from her injuries, her mother said.
"Justice will be served, that's all I can say," she said. "Police brutality is not OK for an adult or for a child, especially for a child."
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
