OCALA, Fla. — A Marion County elementary school principal was reportedly caught on video grabbing a student before getting on top of him and allegedly choking and hitting him.
Dontay Akeem Prophet, 33, was arrested on Friday after a deputy from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call regarding a physical altercation at Destiny Leadership Academy between a student and Prophet.
The pastor and owner of the Ocala K-5 private school told the deputy she saw surveillance footage of Prohpet attacking the boy after the secretary told her about the incident.
During the investigation, surveillance footage from the classroom showed Prophet preventing the child from leaving the room for over 40 minutes, according to a news release by the sheriff’s office.
Prophet grabbed the victim, put him in a choke hold and pinned him to the ground while the boy tried to escape multiple times. At one point the boy tried to hide under the table, but Prophet dragged him from underneath and kneed him as the student tried to kick him, according to the arrest report.
The deputy said Prophet smacked the child in the face and hit him with a computer charger.
Prophet reportedly told the deputy he had a physical altercation with the student because the child was making suicidal statements and wanted to prevent him from killing himself. He claimed he was restraining the boy to stop him from leaving school and running into traffic, according to court records.
Body camera footage from his arrest shows Prophet denying hurting the child.
“I’m not hurting him. I’m trying to get his attention,” he said.
The student’s teacher also reportedly witnessed the incident. She told authorities she heard screaming from outside the room and saw a welt on the child’s face when he left the room. She told law enforcement that she saw Prophet slam the victim on the floor through the classroom window.
When she asked the child what happened, he told her that Prophet hit him with the computer charger.
Prophet was arrested and booked into the Marion County Jail and is being held without bond. He is being charged with aggravated child abuse and false imprisonment of a child under 13.
He was previously charged with lewd lascivious molestation of a child in 2019 but was not prosecuted, court records show.