The family of a teenage boy plans to file a formal complaint against Boynton Beach Police after video surfaced online showing an officer appearing to kick the teen while he was handcuffed.
"He, like, sweeped me off the ground. He kicked me," said Kevens Jean Baptiste. "He didn't say nothing. He just kicked me, and they put me in the back of the car."
After he says he was cuffed and kicked, Jean Baptiste, 13, said Boynton Beach Police drove him to Congress Middle School.
He said police were called in after he was kicked off the school bus for refusing to follow the driver's order to keep the windows closed. Jean Baptiste said perfume had been sprayed inside and he had a hard time breathing.
"I said, 'I don't care. I got asthma,' and I was coughing, and my face was turning red and stuff. So, I just let down my window."
Jean Baptiste and another student were en route to nearby Congress Middle School when they were pulled off the bus at NW 4th Street and Boynton Beach Boulevard the morning of May 8.
A friend happened to have had his cell phone camera rolling.
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"I didn't know he was gonna kick him," said Terrence Dixon. "I just thought they was just gonna talk to him."
From the school bus, Dixon said it looked like the officer kicked Jean Baptiste in his leg, and the teen fell to the ground.
"Every time I, like, bend down for a long time, it still hurts a little," Jean Baptiste said.
Team 6 was there as his mother, Renatta Jean Baptiste, saw the video for the first time.
"It's not nice," she said, while shaking her head.
Boynton Beach Police Spokeswoman Stephanie Slater said the agency is taking action.
"We are investigating the circumstances surrounding this situation, and have placed one of the officers on administrative duty."
The department said they plan to take appropriate action at the conclusion of the investigation.
By late Tuesday, the police said no formal complaint had been lodged. The Jean Baptiste family said they will do so by Wednesday afternoon.
