ABBEVILLE, La. (KLFY)– A possible school shooting threat led to an Abbeville parent sitting in jail and a school resource officer in the spotlight. The officer’s actions are now being scrutinized by some community members.
Videos taken by the woman’s 15-year-old daughter, show the school resource officer holding the parent in a chokehold.
“Mama, I love you, and I’m sorry! Aurora, I can’t breathe,” Juaune Stelly-Judd is heard shouting, while being held in a chokehold by the officer. The officer is heard replying, “You can breathe. If you can talk, you can breathe. Stop resisting, stop moving.”
Prior to the incident, Aurora Stelly told News 10 she asked her mom to pick her up from Abbeville High School Thursday morning after hearing her classmates talking about a possible shooting.
“School shootings, shooting up the school, what they would do during a school shooting,” Stelly said.
Judd arrived to pick up Aurora after her third period class.
Abbeville police said Judd had previously been banned from the school, so the school resource officer asked her to leave. Judd’s family said she tried to.
The confrontation turned into an altercation when police said Judd resisted arrest.
“You will not assault me,” Judd tells the officer in the video before the two tumble to the ground in the video.
“Aurora, she’s trying to break my neck!” Judd shouts, as the officer attempts to hold her down.
“She choked me, and now she’s pointing a gun at me in front of a school!” Judd later yells.
“I am telling you get on the ground!” the officer shouts back.
“You’re going to have to shoot me in front of my kid,” Judd said.
Judd’s daughter cries out, “You’re going to shoot my mama?”
The videos also show the officer resorting to putting Judd in a chokehold.
“My mom was about to die, quite literally. Her face was all purple, and this woman wouldn’t let go at all. I’m asking her, ‘Can you let go? My mom is bleeding. She has a scratch on her face.’ Her eyes were like bloodshot because this woman is squeezing so hard. It was the fact that I thought my mom was about to die,” Stelly told News 10.
Judd was later taken into custody and arrested when more officers arrived.
News 10 spoke with Abbeville Police Chief Mike Hardy about the officer’s actions.
“She was trying to hold her any way she could. Mrs. Judd was way bigger than her and weighed more than her, and she was just hanging on as best she could until she got back up,” Hardy said. “I don’t think she was choking her. I think she was hanging on for dear life. This woman probably outweighed her 3 to 1. She was probably just hanging on.”
News 10 also asked the chief if the officer would be investigated.
“I don’t see any reason for the officer to be charged. She was doing her job. If this person had gone along and cooperated with the officer, she probably could have left if she would have cooperated and just left. But it looks like she didn’t have any intention of working with the officer,” Hardy added.
Judd is accused of multiple crimes, including four counts of battery of a police officer, resisting by force, disarming a peace officer, disturbing the peace and criminal trespassing. She’s being held in the Vermilion Parish jail on $32,000 bond.
Judd’s daughter was also charged with simple battery of a police officer.