Midday Roundup: Texas officer resigns amid protests over pool party scuffle

Stepping down. McKinney, Texas, police Cpl. David Eric Casebolt resigned yesterday after a video of him pinning a 15-year old African-American girl to the ground went viral over the weekend. Hundreds of protesters and supporters had taken to the streets in the Dallas suburb in reaction to the video. The issue surfaced Friday when police officers pulled up to the Craig Ranch North community pool to check out claims that more than 100 teens were there without permission and refused to leave. Casebolt was caught on camera yelling and cursing at the teenagers, pinning a girl in a bikini to the ground, cuffing her, and pulling a gun on a few other teens. Authorities had placed the officer on administrative leave before his resignation.

Deadly force. A Los Angeles Police Department panel declared an officer’s actions unjustified in the shooting death of a mentally ill man. Ezell Ford died 10 months ago after two officers shot him. The LAPD commission said Tuesday the officer who initiated the confrontation with Ezell inappropriately used deadly force. The other officer should not have drawn his weapon, the commission found, but was justified in firing it once it was drawn. Police Chief Charlie Beck must now decide what kind of discipline to apply in the case. Ford’s mother, Tritobia Ford, said the decision proved to her that what happened to her son was wrong.

Policy shift. At an LGBT Pride Month ceremony Tuesday at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter announced the military is including sexual orientation in its equal opportunity policy. “Young Americans today are more diverse, open, and tolerant than past generations, and if we’re going to attract the best and brightest among them to contribute to our mission of national defense, we have to ourselves be more open, diverse, and tolerant, too,” Carter said. The updated policy doesn’t cover transgender service members, but the American Medical Association this week released a resolution stating there is “no medically valid reason to exclude transgender individuals from service in the U.S. military.”

Security breach. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is again under fire for serious security lapses. Rebecca Roering, the TSA assistant security director at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, told the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday the TSA gave 73 airport workers security clearances despite their being on a terror watch list. “TSA is handing out pre-check status like Halloween candy in an effort to expedite passengers as quickly as possible despite self-admitted security gaps that are being created by the process,” Roering said. The acting head of the TSA was reassigned last week after undercover agents were able to sneak fake explosives past airport screeners.

Off the hook. Investigators have determined the engineer of the Amtrak train that derailed in Philadelphia last month was not using his cellphone in the moments before the crash, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. Engineer Brandon Bostian has cooperated with investigators but says he doesn’t remember anything about the deadly accident. The train derailed May 12 going more than 100 mph around a curve with a speed limit of 50 mph. Eight people died and more than 200 were injured in the crash.

WORLD Radio’s Mary Reichard and Kristen Eicher contributed to this report.