Cumberland County teen alleges assault by deputy at football game
When Orza Salone Jr. went to his high school football game Sept. 2, he wasn’t expecting anything but a night of fun with friends. The 15-year-old said he had no idea the evening would result in a concussion, allegedly at the hands of a Cumberland County deputy, and multiple misdemeanor charges he and his father are fighting in the Cumberland County juvenile court system.
Orza Salone Sr. said his son was assaulted by a deputy at the game, and after Salone Sr. filed a complaint with the Sheriff’s Office, the Sheriff's Office filed charges against the teen.
A copy of the Sheriff's Office incident report, not filed until the day of the Salones' complaint, lists victims of Orza's alleged offenses as the assistant principal of South View High School, the state and the Board of Education.
Sgt. Mickey Locklear, a spokesperson for the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office, said via email Monday that the report filed Sept. 2 was “pending court action” in the juvenile justice system.
Locklear confirmed a complaint had been filed at the Sheriff’s Office on Sept. 6 regarding the incident but said further details could not be released because of laws involving juveniles.
Orza and his father worry the charges could affect the high schooler's chances of being recruited to a college track team.
The whole thing, father and son say, represent a system that doesn't play fair.
Fun becomes a fight
Orza claims the trouble began when two of his friends, one from each of the high schools playing on the field — Hoke County and South View — got into a fight.
“They started getting a little rowdy and they started taking their stuff off to start fighting, so I said, ‘Nah, we ain’t doing this,’” Orza said last month.
After he helped break up the fight, the teen said, he was walking away when he bumped into a man he later learned was the South View High School assistant principal. A crowd by that time had gathered around, the teen said, and fearing the assistant principal would step on his new tennis shoes, he brushed past the man to get out of the way. That's when the administrator signaled for a deputy, Orza said.
The first deputy, Orza explained, said he would escort the teen over to the other sideline, but halfway there, they were stopped by a second deputy who, after talking to the assistant principal, told Orza he had to go.
Orza said he didn't have a problem with leaving, but he wanted his money back because he'd only been at the game a few minutes
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"He (the deputy) kept saying no, and finally, I asked one more time before I left, ‘Can I get my money back?’” Orza recalled. “And he says, ‘No,’ again. So I’m about to call my dad, and as I’m dialing my dad’s number, he (the deputy) comes up from the side, picks me up, walks me out the gate, slams me to the ground and hit the back of my head.”
It was a total surprise to the teen, he said.
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“After I hit my head, he goes on top of me, starts punching me in my ribs, punching me in my arms, and he had his hands around my neck until my neck turned purple,” Orza said.
Candice Johnson, a Fayetteville mother who was with her children at the game, said she witnessed the incident. She contacted Orza's father after seeing a post on Instagram documenting the young man's injuries.
“(The deputy) picked him up, he bear-hugged him from the back and he picked him up and was carrying him out the opening,” Johnson said last month.
She said Orza was screaming the entire time, insisting to the deputy he only tried to break up the fight and the deputy “had the wrong guy,” Johnson said.
“He had him up off his feet, he slammed him to the ground, and when he slammed him to the ground, he punched him a couple times and he took his head and was banging his head into the ground,” Johnson said. “He did that several times. Then he choked him. Then he took his forearm and put it in his neck. I’m screaming. I’m like, ‘Why are y’all letting him do that?’”
Johnson said she saw the deputy slam Orza’s head into the ground at least four times and saw the school resource officer pull him off the teenager.
“I seen it with my own two eyes,” she said. “He literally beat that little boy up. I never saw that little boy assault him or any of that.”
Johnson said she was disturbed by what she’d witnessed.
“I really feel like he does not need to work around kids anymore,” she said. “What he did was absolutely unnecessary.”
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Orza said when a friend tried to record the incident, the deputy blocked the view. Then, he claimed, the deputy snatched Orza's phone from him, reportedly yelling he wouldn't be recording anything.
After intervening, a school resource officer who knew Orza tried to calm him down and told him to call his dad, the teen said.
“My dad was mad because none of that was necessary,” Orza recalled. “A day later, I went to the hospital because I had constant headaches all night."
A concussion, a complaint and charges
Hospital records provided to the Observer by Orza Salone Sr. from FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital in Hoke County show the 15-year-old was diagnosed with injuries to his head and neck and a concussion. The family was instructed to follow up with a primary care doctor in three days, the paperwork states.
Orza’s father said his son was out of school for two or three days and wasn’t cleared for track practice for almost three weeks because of the concussion. He said his son's jaw was so swollen that he struggled to eat for about a day, and the symptoms of his concussion were only lessened by sitting in a dark room for several days. Orza said he still gets headaches two months after the incident.
The Salones said they went to the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office on Dick Street the next week to file a complaint but were met with resistance and excuses.
“They were trying to intimidate us,” Orza Salone Sr. said. “Everybody got real nasty with us, and they kept threatening us with, ‘You know they still have a specified time period for that deputy to file charges. You sure you want to file charges?’ I’m like, ‘(Expletive) yeah, I want to file charges.’”
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Salone received a letter from the Division of Juvenile Justice on Oct. 3 stating his son had been charged with simple assault, second-degree trespassing and resisting a public officer.
A copy of the Sheriff's Office incident report, not filed until the day of the Salones' complaint, lists the assistant principal, the state and the Board of Education as the victims of Orza's alleged offenses.
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Orza made his first appearance before a judge last week and has another appearance scheduled for December.
Salone said his son's situation represents a small part of a much larger problem in North Carolina and across the country — a broken justice system that has little regard for average people, especially people of color.
Lindsay Whitley, a Cumberland County Schools spokesperson, said via email Wednesday that the portion of the incident involving school officials was handled properly.
“While it would be inappropriate to share details about a case that involves a juvenile and is currently in the hands of law enforcement and/or the judicial system, I am, however, able to confirm that school officials did follow the appropriate protocol in response to the situation that occurred at this athletic event,” Whitley said.
Public safety reporter Lexi Solomon can be reached at ABSolomon@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Cumberland County teen and his father claim boy was assaulted by deputy
