Body-Slamming Deputy to be Fired

South Carolina authorities will announce Wednesday that Richland County Senior Deputy Ben Fields, the school resource officer who was caught on camera violently flipping a high school student in her classroom, will be relieved of duty, sources told NBC News.

Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott is set to hold a news conference at noon to talk about the internal investigation over the Monday incident at Spring Valley High School in Columbia.

Fields, 34, was suspended without pay as a result of the incident, and the FBI, the Justice Department and state law enforcement are conducting separate investigations.

Lott said at a news conference Tuesday that the female student, who has not been identified, only suffered a rug burn, although her attorney said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” that she “has a cast on her arm, she has neck and back injuries.”

Police say the incident began when the girl became disruptive in her algebra class and was texting on her phone. Her teacher asked the student to leave, and when she refused, an administrator was called in, Lott said.

Fields was then ordered to the classroom. Cellphone videos taken by students show him standing before the girl, commanding her to stand up or be forcibly removed. She refuses to leave. Fields is then seen body-slamming the student to the ground while she’s still in her seat, and then dragging her and her desk across the floor.

A “third video” reviewed by police for the internal investigation shows the girl swinging at the officer’s head after he puts his hands on her, Lott said.

The girl was arrested along with a second student who police say was also “contributing to the chaos.” That student, later identified as 18-year-old Niya Kenny, told NBC News on Tuesday that she witnessed the officer put his arm around her classmate’s neck, and that’s when she fought back.

She said was stunned to see the mayhem in the classroom, and said she “felt something bad was going to go down” when Fields entered the classroom. “He’s known as Officer Slam,” she added.

Lott said Tuesday that he did not know if race was a factor in the case, but didn’t believe so because Fields, who is white, has been dating an African-American woman for “quite some time.” Fields, however, has been the subject of racial bias and excessive force allegations.

The FBI and the Justice Department probes will determine whether the girl’s civil rights were violated in the incident. The president of the South Carolina chapter of the NAACP has called for Fields to be charged with assault.

School district officials also blasted Fields’ actions as “outrageous” and “reprehensible,” and the video itself “shamefully shocking.”

Schools Superintendent Debbie Hamm said the district is strengthening its training efforts with school resource officers to ensure such an incident doesn’t happen again.