Former Texas Asst. Principal Choked Boy at Skating Rink, Police Say

Chad Sanders
Travis County/Twitter/@CourtCBS

In central Texas, authorities arrested a former assistant principal Monday for allegedly choking a 10-year-old boy at a roller staking rink.

Surveillance video at the venue apparently captured the incident.

Austin police booked Chad Sanders, 40, a former Round Rock Independent School District assistant principal, into the Travis County Jail on the third degree felony charge of injury to a child. They say he grabbed a 10-year-old boy by the neck at the Playland Staking Rink on May 12 after the boy asked if he could have some leftover food from a party, according to KEYE.

Purportedly, the suspect told the boy he could not take anything from the table and ordered him to put whatever items he held down. According to the police records, the child told officers he skated off but thereafter noticed Sanders appeared to be looking for him. The victim said he hid by the video game area but Sanders found him. It remains unclear, though, if the boy was part of this party and if the alleged suspect knew the victim.

Officers said the 10-year-old had red marks on both side of his neck consistent with being choked. The boy told police that when Sanders grabbed him by the neck, he could not breathe for a few seconds. According to the arrest warrant, Sanders asked the boy for his wallet and when the youngster said he did not have one, Sanders took the child’s eyeglasses.

Austin police reviewed surveillance video from the skating rink in which they saw an adult male walk over to where the alleged victim hid by the video arcade area. Officers could not see the boy on camera but say they saw Sanders standing over the youngster, according to the Austin CBS affiliate based on the affidavit. It appeared the suspect stomped his right leg either on the victim or next to him. The video also showed Sanders picked the victim up by the neck and forced him into a corner before walking away.

A female witness told police when she saw the incident, she assumed Sanders was the boy’s father and he was disciplining his child. She said she heard the suspect say “gimme, gimme…” but was not aware of what he demanded from the boy.

On video, police also saw Sanders carry in a cake for the party he appeared to be part of at the rollerskating rink. Later, a Playland manager provided law enforcement with more details about that party, including information on the reservation. On May 17, Austin police returned to the skating rink to obtain more surveillance video of the alleged assault. This time, they saw Sanders walk away from the 10-year-old and he threw an object into the trash which officers believed was the boy’s eyeglasses.

Reportedly, Sanders served Round Rock ISD as a teacher from 2012-14, an administrator in 2015, and as the Cedar Valley Middle School assistant principal in the 2016-17 school year until he resigned on April 1 after being placed on administrative leave in early March because of an unspecified internal investigation involving coworkers. The school district had no records of him harming a student during that time.

If convicted, Sanders could face up to 10 years in prison.

Follow Merrill Hope, a member of the original Breitbart Texas team, on Twitter.

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