KENOSHA, Wis. — School officials in Kenosha, Wis., released surveillance footage that shows an off-duty police officer putting his knee on a 12-year-old girl’s neck to restrain her amid a lunchtime fight.
The Kenosha Unified School District released redacted footage of the March 4 fight on Friday. It shows Kenosha officer Shawn Guetschow intervening in the fight and then scuffling with the girl, before falling to the ground and hitting his head on a table.
Guetschow, who was working as a security guard at the school, then pushes the girl’s head into the ground and uses his knee on her neck for about half a minute before handcuffing her and walking her out of the cafeteria.
Newly released footage from the Kenosha Unified School District shows the beginning, middle and end of the lunch room fight that resulted in 37-year-old officer Shawn Guetschow placing a 12-year-old student in a knee chokehold restraint. Story forthcoming. pic.twitter.com/jT2I4GujLY
— Drake Bentley (@DrakeBentleyMJS) March 18, 2022
Jerrel Perez, the girl’s father, has called for criminal charges against Guetschow for using a type of restraint that was banned for Wisconsin law enforcement officers last year. He said his daughter is in therapy and seeing a neurologist for her injuries.
The school district initially placed Guetschow on paid leave. He resigned from his part-time security job with the school on Tuesday, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
In his resignation letter, Guetschow complained the school district has not supported him and that the incident has placed a heavy burden on his family.
There have been many requests for comment, from KPD, regarding the March 4, 2022 incident at Lincoln Middle School. KPD is aware of Shawn Guetschow’s resignation from the school district and the verbal notice of claim made by an attorney representing the student.
— Kenosha Police Dept. (@KenoshaPolice) March 19, 2022
The district told the newspaper it would not provide any additional details and did not respond to messages left by The Associated Press on Saturday. Kenosha police, in a statement, said Guetschow is still employed by the department.
“We continue our investigation, paying careful attention to the entire scope of the incident,” the statement said. “We have no further update at this time.”
