Pool-party policeman goes into hiding

Eric Casebolt, the McKinney, Texas, police officer who just resigned his position due to a video of him taking down a teenage pool partier girl in an aggressive manner, has taken his family and gone into hiding, afraid for their lives, his attorney said.

Jane Bishkin, the attorney for the former officer, said Casebolt has issued an apology for his actions, which included the rough treatment of the teenage girl and the brief brandishing of his service revolver at some teenage boys at the party.

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“He regrets that his actions depict him and his department in a negative light. He apologizes to all who were offended,” Jane Biskin, Casebolt's attorney, told a news conference Wednesday.

Biskin also said Casebolt had responded to two suicide calls earlier in the day that the video was shot, and it had taken an emotional toll on him.

On June 11, the day the incident took place, Casebolt responded to a call where a man had shot himself in the head in front of his family. He subsequently attended another incident where a teenage girl was threatening to jump off her parents' roof. There, Casebolt helped calm the girl down so she could be taken to the hospital, Bishkin said, according to CNN.

“That day was not representative of his 10 years of service to McKinney and its police officers,” she added.

She also said Casebolt, a 10-year veteran of the force and former Texas state trooper, has since received several death threats, the Associated Press reported. He's been forced to take his family and leave his home, and go into hiding, she said.

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"He's worried for his family," Bishkin said, the New York Daily News reported. "He's worried he may be followed and until these threats subside, he's going to be in an undisclosed location."

Casebolt was one of a dozen or so officers called to the Craig Ranch North Community Pool party over complaints of unruly teenagers. Police tried to calm the scene but during the course, Casebolt, who's white, slammed a black teen girl to the ground, and the video soon after went viral.

Several witnesses alleged the police response was racist; others, including a black witness who saw Casebolt's actions first-hand, said racism had nothing to do with the police response.

Biskin also sought to dispel allegations that the officer was targeting minorities, saying that in addition to placing the black girl shown in the video in handcuffs, Casebolt arrested a while girl at the same incident, the Huffington Post reported.