December 18th 2019

By Lauren Floyd

Daily Kos

A former North Carolina deputy shown on a viral video slamming an 11-year-old middle school student on the floor and dragging him through the hall has been charged with assault, the local district attorney announced Tuesday at a news conference. “Today investigators with the State Bureau of Investigation will seek a warrant for the arrest of Warren Durham for assault on a child under 12, misdemeanor child abuse, and willful failure to discharge duties related to his employment with the Vance County Sheriff's Office, which was terminated,” Vance County District Attorney Mike Waters told reporters at the news conference. 

Waters said the student's parents took him to an emergency room and followed up with his primary care physician, and "by the grace of God," the child doesn't have any serious injuries. "Despite the violent nature of this assault depicted in the video, the student did not suffer any fractured or broken bones or sustain any injuries that can be defined under North Carolina law as serious bodily injury...” Waters said. “Therefore under North Carolina law the school resource officer in that video can not be charged with a felony.”

The incident that ended up costing the deputy his job played out last week at Vance County Middle School in Henderson, which is about 50 miles north of Raleigh. A Vance County Sheriff’s Office official confirmed in a phone call Monday with Daily Kos that the deputy was terminated. Still, the child’s family is “disappointed” and “frustrated” that this is not a felony case,” Waters said. “However this issue turns on the fact that this child was not more seriously injured,” Waters said. “And had the child been more seriously injured, felony charges would be appropriate.”

It’s unclear what led up to the encounter that ended with the child injured, and Waters echoed Vance County Sheriff Curtis Brame’s remarks to the media that “it’s not relevant.” "I don't think that there's any justification for it," Waters said. “I don’t see any justification in law.” Waters also said the sheriff’s office is investigating another matter relating to a child, but Waters didn’t reveal the details of that alleged incident. He said only that the investigation is “preliminary.”

In the widely reported incident, the child's grandfather, Pastor John Miles, told reporters Monday the attack should have never occurred, according to local news station WRAL. "I don't care what happened,” Miles said. “My grandson should never have been attacked by a grown man that we trust in law enforcement."

View the disturbing video below:

Posted with permission