Police release full video of officer restraining child after story goes viral — it’s heartbreaking

The Athens-Clarke County Police in Athens, Georgia, released the full 5-plus-minute video featuring the moment they had to restrain a young black child when he apparently became emotionally distraught over his father's arrest.

What's the background?

Video of police officers restraining a young black boy went viral, sparking a major outrage on social media.

The incident took place on Friday, but just a snippet of the altercation appeared on Facebook.

Facebook user Ariel Collins — apparently the cousin of the boy in question — shared the video Sunday on Facebook. By Monday, the video received over 600,000 views and 23,000 shares. Collins' video has since been deleted.

Collins captioned the video, “These mfs done slammed my lil cousin on the car first (the footage I didn’t get) then on the ground and he’s only 7 #CNN #CHANNEL2 #11LIVE #FOX5 … and, FYI Eric didn’t do anything but was tryna talk to his dad who was in the police car. THAT’S IT!!!!!”

Throughout the video, police officers can be observed remaining calm, despite the young man’s struggles, and though one officer pulled out handcuffs, he was never actually cuffed.

Family members initially reported that the child is 7 years old, but later said that he was 9 years old. Police report that the child is 10 years old.

On Sunday, the police department issued a statement on its Facebook page, which acknowledged the public's visceral reaction to the video.

The post read, “We have been made aware of a video that is making its way around social media involving two of our officers. We are reviewing the facts around this incident and will be publicly addressing the issue tomorrow. We ask that you remember we have made a promise of transparency to this community and have upheld that promise on multiple occasions.”

They issued a further statement later that day, describing what had actually occurred.

The department explained that officers had responded to a domestic violence call. They ended up having to take a man into custody, and as a result, a young boy — apparently the man's son — became emotionally agitated. The boy reportedly attempted to physically prevent the police from taking the man into custody.

The two officers reportedly restrained the young boy gently but firmly during his outburst.

You can read the department's full statement below.

What can be seen in the bodycam video?

The Athens-Clark County police shared the video on its Facebook page, and captioned it, "Video released to media at July 23, 2018 press conference regarding a child being restrained by an ACCPD officer. Please note the child's name was redacted in the audio portion of the program, resulting in silent sections."

You can see the full video below, which features the man's arrest, as well as the young boy's outburst.