Minnesota Teen’s Arrest Draws Scrutiny After YouTube Video

— -- Police in St. Paul, Minnesota, are investigating a 15-year-old boy’s arrest after a YouTube video appeared to show an officer pinning the teen to the ground.

The officer was still on active duty and it was unclear whether internal affairs would be involved in the police department investigation, St. Paul Police Department spokesman Steve Linders told ABC News today.

Linders said officers had initially intended to cite the teenager’s younger brother for assault before the 15-year-old arrived at the scene of a picnic Sunday. After an exchange of words, the officer decided to arrest the 15-year-old for disorderly conduct, he said. The officer and the teen then fell to the ground during the arrest, Linders added.

He said the teen, whom officials are not naming because of his age, was booked and released, but Linders did not know whether he was charged.

Alex Weston said he shot the video of the arrest, although he took it down days later out of concern for people who can possibly be identified in the video.

“I posted it because I believed the use of force by the arresting officer, and the verbal abuse from the arresting officer and several other officers, were absolutely unacceptable,” Weston wrote on YouTube after taking down the video

“I wanted the police to be held accountable for what I see as clear misconduct, for others to be able to see what I had witnessed, and for much-needed conversation to take place in our church, in our community, and between the community and the police.”

Weston told ABC affiliate KSTP-TV in Minneapolis-St. Paul that he believed the officer’s actions crossed a line. The video shows the officer pinning the boy and struggling to put handcuffs on him, according to KSTP-TV.

Other people surrounded the officer and started to yell at the officer, the station reported.

"I want to start a conversation and a dialogue in the community because that was not a healthy community-police relationship that I was observing," Weston told KSTP-TV.

Weston could not be reached for further comment.