Streets lined with protesters chanting and holding signs, reporters everywhere, it looked like a scene straight from Ferguson or Baltimore, but this wasn’t either of those places, this was in McKinney, Texas “the #1 place to live in America.”

These people were protesting what they claimed to be police brutality after a video was posted showing an officer responding to a call at a pool party on Friday, June 5.

“There at least had to be around 50 people if not more at the pool party,” sophomore and pool party attendee Georgianna Roeder said. “I found out about it through Twitter. The party wasn’t out of control but the parents were.”

Neighbors called the cops after a fight broke out between a neighborhood resident and teenager.

“This one lady was complaining to the security guards and started saying racial slurs and got into a fight with my friend,” Roeder said. “She told her to ‘go back to section 8.’”

Once the police arrived, [former] officer Eric Casebolt yelled at the group of girls to go to the other side of the street.

“Dajerria was standing and the officer already told her to leave her spot,” Roeder said. “When I walked over to her she was complaining and bad-mouthing the cops. She had started to say something and I covered her mouth and I started to walk away with her”

What happened next was something she never thought she would witness.

“As we were walking away the cop stopped us and was like ‘I already told you to leave’ and then he pulled his gun out.” Roeder said. “We both looked at him and he started to put his gun away and then turned it towards somebody else. Then he grabbed Dajerria and flung her to the ground.”

Roeder was speechless as she watched her friend be pinned to the ground by a police officer.

“I didn’t know what to do. I was thinking ‘should I help her?’ I couldn’t just stand there watching her get beaten by a cop,” Roeder said. “But then I also had to think if I place my hands on him I could go to jail for touching an officer. That was the worst feeling ever.”

Roeder wasn’t in fear for her life, but in fear for those of her friends.

“Honestly I thought he was going to shoot because he pulled out his gun for no reason on multiple people,” Roeder said. “That cop was the only one cussing and pulling his gun out.”

While she watched, she and others pulled out their phones and recorded the incident.

“People need to know what their rights are,” Roeder said. “Yes, we have the right to video record things, but the officer told us we were interfering, and he threatened to take me and other people to jail that had their phones out just because we were video taping it.”

Roeder has a partial video but the only full video is from Brandon Brooks, who is white.

“He (the officer) only said things to people who were taller than him and could possibly pose a threat,” Roeder said. “He only told the black kids to stop recording it.

She has turned this situation into a learning experience.

“I’ve learned that you can’t really trust people and what they say,” Roeder said. “I heard the lady who attacked my friend talking to the police officer and telling him all this stuff that didn’t happen and twisted the story around.”

Looking back, she wonders if the officer took different actions, could this have been avoided.

“I think if the cops had threatened to take us to jail, people would’ve backed off,” Roeder said. “He could’ve just threatened to pepper spray us, and people would’ve listened.”

The protesters who marched from the elementary school to the scene had their own concerns.

“I wasn’t really expecting a lot of people to show up I was surprised at the outcome,” junior Ameenah McKnight said. “There were about 800 people. One guy even flew all the way from New York to come and protest.”

People of all races marched the streets of McKinney.

“It was powerful to see all of those people coming together,” McKnight said. “It was a really peaceful thing. No one really got in any arguments. Everyone just stayed together and marched. We made a statement and showed McKinney that people can come together.”

Click here for more photos from Monday’s police brutality march.

All photos by Ulises Velez