A high school security guard in Oakland, California, went on trial this week for charges related to an incident which happened in May of 2014.
Security camera video shows the guard,?Marchell Mitchell, yanking Francisco Martinez, who is now 18, out of his wheelchair at Oakland High School, kicking him and then throwing his chair on top of him. Martinez suffers from cerebral palsy.
Martinez recently said he’s glad Mitchell will finally be tried for what he did:
?I just want to see justice happen, because I don’t think it’s fair for this event to occur on a school day, in a school where I’m supposed to be coming in safe and not be brutalized and thrown around like an animal.”
The altercation began when Mitchell took hold of Martinez? chair and started pushing him to a classroom. Martinez informed the guard he had a teacher’s permission to be out of class, but Mitchell continued pushing the wheelchair, first to class then, when things got violent, to the principal’s office.
For his part, Mitchell’s attorney maintains?that Martinez is a gang member and and made threats and racial slurs. Martinez denies that he is a part of any gang.
After the incident, photographs taken of ?Martinez show bruises on the teen’s throat and face from Mitchell’s actions.
The video also shows?Mitchell roughly dumping Martinez out of his wheelchair and kicking him after they are in an elevator.
Watch The Security Camera Videos?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTuF1uVtEJg
