Incident between Round Rock PD officers and student caught on video

A video recorded Thursday appears to show a Texas police officer grabbing a high school student by the throat.

The incident happened Oct. 8 at Round Rock High School, outside of Austin.

In a statement released by the Round Rock Police Department, the officers were called to the school cafeteria to break up a fight that an employee wasn't able to de-escalate. After officers arrived, one student refused to calm down and was attempting to get past the officers to continue the fight. After repeated attempts to get the student to calm down, "officers were forced to detain him for his safety and the safety of others."

In a video taken during the meeting with officers, the student, identified as14-year-old Gyasi Hughes, appears to bump an officer as he talks to them and puts on his backpack. The officer reaches for Hughes' arm. Within seconds, and inaudible words, the officer grabs Hughes' throat, dragging him to the ground.

Austin news outlets have identified the officer as Rigo Valles.

"As I was walking away the officer was pushing me in the back and I was like, 'why are you pushing me? I'm not doing anything, I'm walking away like you told me to," Hughes said when speaking to media outlets. "Finally we get like in this little corner and he's (the SRO) sitting there yelling at me saying, 'You shouldn't be rude to the lady (assistant principal), don't talk to her like that,' I was like, 'what are you talking about, I'm not doing anything."

"Finally I asked him (the officer) to leave me alone and that's the point when he grabbed me and took me down and tried to detain me," said Hughes. "I was just very upset, I was amped up over the fight and wasn't really thinking."

Kashka Hughes, the student's father, plans on filing charges against the police department.

"The police officer that was actually in this particular situation, he should have been trained well enough to know that this is a 130 pound child and that the action that was taken was totally unnecessary," said Kashka.

A Round Rock ISD spokesperson said the school is working with the police department to make sure proper procedures were followed.

Gyasi Hughes was suspended for the fight, which reportedly began over a pair of goggles.