Some Cedar Creek High School students walked out of class today in protest of the tasing of a fellow student on Wednesday. That student, 17-year-old Noe Nino de Rivera, has been in a coma ever since the incident.
Officials and Rivera’s family members are far apart in their descriptions of the incident.
Bastrop County Sheriff’s Deputies Randy McMillan and Timothy Stalcup, who work as school resource officers for the Bastrop school district, were called Wednesday morning to a fight between two female students.
Rivera was also there, where he was tased by McMillan. Sissy Jones with the Bastrop County Sheriff’s Office says Rivera resisted arrest after interfering with the investigation.
“The officer tried to get the juvenile, to arrest him, to put him in handcuffs, for his own safety,” Jones says. “And that’s when the juvenile resisted arrest, so the officer pulled his Taser and deployed his Taser.” Rivera fell to the ground and was transported to St. David’s Hospital.
That’s simply not true, says Adam Loewy, the family’s attorney.
“We have talked to eye witnesses and we have seen eyewitness video of what happened,” Loewy says. “Noe was not being aggressive, Noe was just standing in place – he had just broken up a fight, being a good Samaritan, being a good citizen.”
Rivera is still in a coma and fighting for his life, Loewy says.
The Bastrop County Sheriff’s Office is conducting an internal investigation of the incident, which is standard protocol after the use of force. Depending on the results of that investigation, they may decide to file charges against Rivera, Jones says.
Loewy says the family will be asking the Texas Rangers to investigate.