The teen took “an aggressive stance” toward the officer, police said, and Jaha responded by punching the boy in the face out of “self-defence”.
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An Oklahoma City school resource officer has been charged with misdemeanor assault and battery following an investigation into an altercation with a juvenile student. But, surveillance video also captured the incident inside the school and an investigation was opened.
The Oklahoma City Public Schools released a statement saying, “From the onset we worked with the Oklahoma City Police Department assisting with their internal investigation surrounding the situation between a former school resource officer and a U.S. Grant High School student”.
In the October 9 surveillance footage shown, the officer confronts the teen at a water fountain in a hallway.
Jaha claims the student faced him with a clenched fist, so he hit the teenager in self-defense.
According to the report, the student had bruising and swelling and minor cuts inside his mouth after being punched.
He said: ‘I thought he was about to hit me, so I struck him before he could get me’.
But investigators said the student insisted that he ‘didn’t try to fight him at all.’ He also claimed that he was actually hit three times.
“If he believed that he was going to be hurt, or he was going to be attacked then obviously he has the right and the opportunity to defend himself”, said Captain Paco Balderrama with the Oklahoma City Police Department.
“We presented the case to the district attorney’s office”, said Balderrama.
Now that a charge has been filed, he is on administrative leave with pay.
On Wednesday Jaha was charged with assault and battery, NY Daily News reported.
This event comes just days after a South Carolina officer was sacked for forcefully removing a female student from her desk and tossing her across the classroom floor.
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Court records do not list an attorney for Jaha, and a telephone message left with Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 123 was not immediately returned.
