ORANGE, NJ (WCMH) – An officer is suspended and facing an internal investigation after he allegedly attacked twin sisters outside a New Jersey high school.
The incident was caught on video Thursday and shows 17-year-old twin Nyasia and Kyasia Sorrells on the receiving end of an Orange Police Officer’s restraining hold.
Nyasia and Kyasia were on the sidewalk across the street from their high school after dismissal on Thursday when it happened.
“He grabbed me by my hair and swung me on the ground and started like bashing my head on the ground,” Nyasia told WPIX.
“He had both of us on the ground, and his knees was on both of us, and we couldn’t do nothing,” Kyasia said.
The Orange Police department identified the officer in the video as Hanifah Davis. Davis was immediately suspended after city officials saw the video.
“In a word, it was sickening,” said city spokesman Keith Royster. “It was not the best of the Orange Police Department, and the police director pretty much said that today.”
Kyasia and Nyasia as well as firefighters stationed across the street from where the alleged attack took place say this isn’t the first questionable interaction Davis has had with students and pointed to other videos circulating on social media.
Nyasia and Kyasia’s father Mike Sorrells is furious.
“Anybody who got kids feel the same way right now,” he said. “They’re here to protect and serve. Who they protecting? What they serving? Brutality?”
An internal affairs investigation into the incident is pending. The outcome of the investigation will determine whether or not Davis will be allowed to keep his job.