The update: the officer is now on paid leave
Four days after the video went viral, Lafayette Police have finally moved. Interim Chief Paul Trouard confirmed the officer seen taking a sixteen-year-old to the pavement is now on paid leave, with Internal Affairs leading the investigation.
Alongside the leave, the department announced three mandatory changes: expanded de-escalation retraining for officers, weekly random audits of officer-worn camera footage by supervisors, and a revised use-of-force policy that specifically targets officers who stand by while a colleague crosses the line. The failure-to-intervene piece matters here — watch the video again with that in mind.
Why the timing still stings
Paid leave arrived four days after the footage spread, and only after the local NAACP branch publicly demanded accountability and highlighted what it calls a pattern of use-of-force incidents in the department. Back in 2020, this same department placed an officer on leave within forty-eight hours of a nearly identical viral arrest. This time it took a public pressure campaign to get to “paid leave.”
The part that should bother everyone
The teen did the thing we tell everyone to do: he asked for a parent and a lawyer before saying a word. Saying that out loud should have been the end of it. Instead, moments later, he was face-down on the pavement with an officer on top of him. He and his family call the arrest wrongful and the takedown retaliation for invoking his rights where the camera could hear it.
What we’re watching
The officer still has no name, and no charges have been announced. We are keeping eyes on the Internal Affairs case. The moment a name or charges drop, you’ll hear it here first — and this story graduates from development to consequence.
Source: The Advocate / Acadiana Advocate, Dean Boudreaux, Sept 18, 2026. Original reporting: KLFY.
