El Paso police are investigating an officer who was seen on video pointing his gun at children.

The video also shows the minors screaming obscenities at the officer, who also pulled a baton.

A video viewed thousands of times on social media showed several police officers in a south central neighborhood.

A series of events unfolded including children yelling and an officer who eventually pulled out his gun, but did not open fire.

“And I see the officer choking my son and I’m like what are you doing? So I got up in his face and said, what are you doing? You’re not supposed to be doing that,” said the kid’s mother Elizabeth Florida.

Florida says she understands her kids were not respectful, but she says the video does not show what happened earlier.

“They didn’t see the beginning. They didn’t see when they saw my son getting choked and then they tripped and threw him on the floor, they didn’t see that part. That’s why the kids were agitated,” Florida said.

Two people were taken into custody, a minor and an adult. Jacob Florance was one of them and he was detained by police but later released.
 
“You choke me like I had like a short breath. Right after he had me on the floor grabbed my hair like.. I couldn’t, like I was barely breathing,” Florance said.

El Paso police say there is more to the incident than what was shown in the viral video. That is why they are opening an internal investigation on the officer’s response, and the officer is now on desk duty.

“The whole investigation process will determine whether the officer followed protocol, look at all of the related incidents that surrounded that, take an opportunity do interviews and go through that entire process so all the facts are gathered before any conclusion is drawn,” Dionne Mack the Deputy City Manager for Public Safety said.

Some neighbors say they’re siding with the officer.

“I personally am on the side of the law because the video shows they were disrespecting the cop,” Teresa Chacon said.

Chacon says those kids in the video are the same ones she’s seen coming onto her property.

“Nowadays they don’t respect anyone. They throw rocks. They sneak into one property. And these are boys whose mothers should be corrected,” she said.

Although officials say they don’t approve of the kids’ behavior, they understand the need for proper protocol. It has yet to be determined if the officer was following it.

“I think for me it was most disheartening is just sort of see the children just completely labeled and just see them sort of be discarded. I mean it’s one incident. You know these are our children, this is our community. And you know I’m not giving up on those children,” Mack said.

El Paso police say the officer in the video is a four-year veteran of the department.

No complaints have been filed against the officer.

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