Police are under investigation for their response to a fight at a New Jersey mall between two teenagers.
Alleged video of the incident shows a white and Black teenager, a 14-year old 8th grader going by the name Kye, exchanging words before throwing blows at the Bridgewater Commons mall.
Two police officers rushed to the scene and broke up the fight, pinning Kye to the ground and handcuffing him.
Although the white teen appears to be on top of Kye when the officers arrived, he was pulled to the side and then left alone, as he sat watching from a nearby couch.
“I was confused, like, why they saw me as a bad person, like, me as an aggressor,” Kye told CBSNewYork. “If they don’t know how to treat the situation and deal with the situation equally and fairly, then they shouldn’t be able to deal with the situation at all,” he told the outlet.
In a statement, the Bridgewater Police Department said “We recognize that this video has made members of our community upset and are calling for an internal affairs investigation. The officers were able to respond quickly to this incident and stop it from escalating because of a tip we received from the community.”
The snap judgment to only accost the Black teenager has raised concerns of racial bias, including from New Jersey Governor Phil Murray who tweeted that he is “deeply disturbed by what appears to be racially disparate treatment in this video.”
The department said they have requested the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office to assist with the matter.