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John Hollenhorst reporting A Salt Lake County sheriff's deputy becomes the focus of an internal investigation as he returns to duty at Riverton High School this morning.
A student from that school remains in critical condition following a scuffle with the deputy, who was trying to handcuff him on Friday.
Hospital officials still have not released details of the boy's injuries. But he's been in critical condition since Friday. Officials say the incident was triggered by the boy's repeated acts of truancy and his uncooperative behavior.
A deputy is assigned to the school as a resource officer. The Sheriff's Department is investigating whether he properly used force to subdue a student.
Sgt. Paul Jaroscak/ Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office: "We do investigations of all use of force."
On Friday the deputy was in his office when school administrators brought in the 17-year-old senior. They asked the deputy to detain the boy for truancy.
Sgt. Paul Jaroscak/ Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office: "It's our understanding that the school had previous dealings with this young man and the parents had asked that he be taken to youth services if there were any more truancies."
He says the boy left the office, so the deputy and a school staffer chased the senior down.
They were leading him back to the office. But the boy became more and more resistant, finally pulling away to speak to friends. The deputy put him in a sort of bear hug.
Sgt. Paul Jaroscak: "He put him in the bear hug to kind of detain him, and he was going to take him to the ground and handcuff him because he was being resistant. When he took him down, he struck his head on the floor and was unconcious."
The sheriff's spokesman says the deputy didn't throw the boy to the floor; he fell with him. Officers are trained to do it when trying to get someone under control.
Sgt. Paul Jaroscak/ Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office: "To be injured like that is out of the ordinary. We try to avoid that sort of thing, but they happen occasionally."
The boy's identity has not been released. We've been told his 15-year-old sister witnessed the incident along with a number of other students. The deputy has not been suspended and is expected back at the school today.
