SPRINGFIELD — Those who have seen surveillance video from a reported “physical interaction” between a city police officer and a Kiley Middle School student say it shows the officer shoving the student and causing him to fall to the floor.

One person described seeing the student fall to the floor and do a barrel roll, while another said the student hit the floor and bounced.

The video is a key part of the investigation into a possible assault on a student by a member of the Springfield Police’s Quebec school support unit. The officer has been reassigned out of schools and the investigation is in the hands of the Hampden District Attorney. It is also being investigated by the state Department of Children and Families.

City officials on Tuesday held a press briefing on the matter, describing how the police and schools immediately took action once the allegations surfaced. They came to light after the child’s pediatrician saw bruising on the child, asked him what happened, and then reported it to authorities.

Mayor Domenic Sarno and Acting Police Commissioner Cheryl C. Clapprood each confirmed the incident is recorded on school surveillance video, but under recommendation from Springfield Solicitor Edward Pikula, descriptions and details of what happened have been sparse.

Pikula described the incident as “a conflict — an interaction, a personal, physical interaction” between the officer and a student. He would not say if the interaction was violent, saying “I would hesitate in describing it, other than there was an interaction and it rises to the level that it warrants investigation.”

The video, which is not being made available to the press or public, is in the hands of the district attorney’s office, which is in charge of the investigation.

Two people who have seen the video spoke to The Republican on the condition their identities not be released. The video quality is described as quite good and the images of the interaction very clear, though there is no audio.

As described, the video shows a student sitting at a desk in the hallway of Kiley, and a couple of school staff are talking with him. The student is refusing to cooperate with the staff, who are trying to get him to get up and move along.

“He’s just plopped down at the desk and isn’t moving,” one person said.

After a few minutes, the staff call the Quebec officer over to assist.“I don’t know why (because) there’s nothing he can do,” one source said.

Under the new juvenile justice reform law that was passed last year, school support officers are limited in what they can do with the student population while school is in session. Police can no longer arrest a disobedient student for disturbing a school assembly. They are also not supposed to get involved in routine matters of school discipline. All of that is supposed to be left to the school administration.

The proper action of a police officer in this situation would be to leave it to the school staff, or at most, contact the student’s parents to come get him.

In the video, the Quebec officer comes over to talk to the student while the two staff stand nearby. After a few minutes, the two staff walk away, leaving the student and the officer alone.

After a few minutes more, the video appears to show the interaction getting a little heated. There’s no audio so no one can hear what is being said, but the officer reaches over and grabs the student, lifting him out of his seat.

The officer then restrains the student in what was described as a reverse bear hug. He’s behind the student, and has his arms wrapped around his torso under the armpits.

The student at this point is completely passive. He’s refusing to stand up and is dead weight in the officers’ arms.

The officer then tries walking the student down the hallway although the student is still refusing to walk, much less stand.

After a moment or two, the officer gave the student “a pretty good shove,” but the student was not ready for it and lost his balance and tumbled to the ground.

The student did kind of a barrel roll on the ground, and the officer then lifted him up again.

There were no punches, no kicks, no visible acts of violence by the officer. But “he gave the kid a pretty good shove and the kid was not ready for it.”

The tumble was described as a distance of 6 to 8 feet after the shove.

Regardless of what was being said between the officer and the student, what is shown on the video is hard to defend, a source said.

“I don’t know what he was trying to do,” one source said. “it just looks bad.”

Ryan Walsh, police department spokesman said, there is is no incident report on file with the department because no crime was reported and no one was arrested.

James Leydon, communications director for Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni, said that because the matter involves allegations against a Springfield police officer, the investigation has been turned over to state police detectives assigned to the Gulluni’s office. That investigation is ongoing, he said.

Leydon said the video is not being released to the public. If the investigation ends without any criminal charges filed against the officer, the media may request a copy under the Freedom of Information Act, he said. If the matter ends up in a criminal case, the video will be introduced in court.

Clapprood said following Tuesday’s press conference in City Hall that members of the department were “shocked” at the allegations.

The officer involved is a 20-year veteran of the department, and a long-time school resource officer.

He’s never been in trouble before, he volunteers with children’s programs, and has children of his own, Clapprood said. “This is out of character.”