A Tampa police officer was fired this week after an internal investigation found he placed a suspect in a choke hold earlier this year, among other policy violations.

Officer Michael Scaglione was fired Tuesday for violating three Tampa Police Department policies during a domestic battery call in April, the department announced in a news release.

The police union president said the department made the wrong call in the case and that Scaglione will fight to have him fired.

On April 12, Scaglione and another officer, Anthony Girouard, responded to a home in the 8000 block of North 10th Street in Sulfur Springs and determined there was probable cause to arrest a 36-year-old man on a charge of domestic battery , according to the data. a disposition letter to Police Chief Lee Bercaw summarizing the findings of an internal affairs investigation.

As officers approached the man inside the home, he “refused to put his hands behind his back, stiffening, tensing and pulling,” the letter states.

As the three men fell to the ground, Scaglione can be seen on body worn camera images grabbing the suspect’s left wrist with his right hand to choke the man. The restraint left the man unconscious, and he went limp and began snoring, according to the letter.

Scaglione released the man and put his hand around his neck. The man woke up seconds later and again resisted by pulling his arms away from the officers. Scaglione punched the man in the head several times and put his hand around the man’s neck to pin him to the ground, the video shows.

During the incident, Girouard is positioned near the man’s legs, trying to take control of his arm to handcuff him. Officers eventually handcuffed him.

Officers arrested the man on charges of assault, battery, possession of marijuana, and resisting an officer without violence. Prosecutors dropped the first three charges the following month. On Wednesday, prosecutors dropped the resisting charge, records show.

Scaglione told internal affairs investigators that he tried to use a “safety belt” technique, which is allowed by department policy, to gain control of the man, but was unable to use the technique properly because the man fell to the ground, according to the letter. . Scaglione initially disagreed with the claim that he used a chokehold, then after viewing the body camera video admitted that he may have done so inadvertently.

A senior defensive tactics instructor for the department testified that chokehold and seat belt techniques “cannot be confused with each other,” the letter states.

According to department policy, “choking and/or vascular restraints of the neck are prohibited unless deadly force is justified.”

Scaglione also failed to properly document the blows he delivered to the man’s head, which are allowed under department policy to gain control of a resisting suspect.

The investigation also found that Scaglione and Girouard failed to document in their report that a 3-year-old child was present during the incident, failed to notify the Department of Children and Families of the child’s presence, and failed to document or investigate allegations that the child had been sexually abused by one of the suspect’s relatives.

The internal investigation found that Scaglione, who joined the department in 2016, violated policies related to the standard of conduct, response to resistance, enforcement philosophy and attention to duty.

Investigators found that Girouard had violated the policy on paying attention to debt. Received a violation advisory letter.

In a statement included in a news release on Scaglione’s termination, Bercaw said domestic violence investigations “are one of the most dangerous and volatile situations an officer can respond to, and the dynamic can change quickly.”

“It is imperative that, even in the heat of the moment, officers are able to respond according to established policies and training procedures that have been developed to ensure officer safety as well as the public,” Bercaw said. “In this case, these standard expectations were not met and his employment was terminated.”

Brandon Barclay, president of the Tampa Police Benevolent Association, the union that represents the department’s roughly 1,000 sworn officers, said the union will “vigorously defend” Scaglione as he appeals his termination.

Barclay said Scaglione tried the seat belt technique, which is used to restrain someone from behind by placing one arm under the person’s armpit and the other arm over the person’s shoulder and across the chest, then locking the hands.

“But when someone is actively resisting and you’re trying to get into that technique, and the guy’s six inches taller than you and 80 pounds heavier, they weigh you down, you end up on the floor, and that’s how you end up in this situation,” Barclay said.

Barclay said someone at the scene mentioned the allegations of sexual abuse in a “nonchalant” manner, as if the abuse happened in the distant past, and did not clarify that the alleged abuse happened the night before .

Barclay said Scaglione has no prior use of force violations or disciplinary history.