A Clearwater police officer has been fired for using excessive force while arresting a 13-year-old boy.

  • Michael Leonardo fired from Clearwater police force
  • He slammed teen down on April 2, broke teen's nose
  • Police chief said he's embarrassed, wants to be transparent about what happened

Police Chief Dan Slaughter said the officer, Michael Leonardo, slammed the teen down face first and then let him roll around the ground in pain. The teen's nose was broken, and his teeth were chipped.

The incident occurred April 2 at a youth home for at-risk juveniles. Leonardo was fired Monday.

Slaughter said the teen was being verbally abusive to the officer but said that's no excuse for the excessive force that was used.

The incident, caught on surveillance video, shows Leonardo escorting the handcuffed teen through a doorway last month.

The teen tried to pull away, and that's when the officer took him to the ground face first.

Three officers initially put the teen in the back of a cruiser, but because he was bleeding so badly, they then put the teen on the ground.

Slaughter said he's embarrassed by the officers letting the teen roll around the ground in pain. Two of three officers received letters of discipline.

"When you have a juvenile who's 5-6, 150 (pounds) and an officer who's 5-8, 200 pounds and two other officers there, we should be able to control that prisoner on the way to the car without having to go to a take down," he said.

Slaughter said he's also going to tell his officers from this point forward to leave injured people in the car with the door open. He said the department has enough funds to clean blood out of a cruiser.

"I would have left him in the car," Slaughter said. "You can leave the door open and monitor him. That would have been my preference and that's the information that's going to be relayed to people moving forward."

The chief said neither the teen nor his dad complained about the incident, but he wanted to bring the case forward to be open and transparent.

Leonardo had no other excessive force incidents in his history with Clearwater police.