A firefighter has been charged with assault after pinning down a 13-year-old child in a playground.
Thomas Louis D'Andrea, 46, claimed he saw the boy vandalising a construction truck and decided to restrain him until the police came.
In a video filmed by the boy's sister, D'Andrea can be seen pinning the boy down at the top of a slide in a playground in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
D'Andrea, of muscular build, locked his hands on the boy's neck and shouted at him: "You assaulted me. You punched me in the face!"
The boy's 16-year-old sister was crying as she begged D'Andrea to let go of her brother. She said she could hold him while waiting for the police but D'Andrea refused.
D'Andrea told her: "I'm holding him. I'm not hurting him. Get away from me, I'm going to hit you too."
The police arrived the scene to find the boy suffered a large lump on the head, swollen lips and a bloody mouth, the Trib Live reports.
Officers heard the pair exchanged words after D'Andrea saw the boy inside a construction truck and told him to leave.
The boy said he noticed one of his friends crying in the truck and had been trying to calm her down until D'Andrea approached to him.
He also said D'Andrea swung at him but he dodged his fist. He then hit back in self-defence as a reaction to the punch, according to the police.
The police confirmed D'Andrea was a Pittsburgh city firefighter and determined that he was the aggressor and filed assault charges against him.
D'Andrea was also accused of smashing the boy's smartphone, police said.
He was reportedly given an administrative leave while waiting to be summoned to court.
The District Attorney’s Office approved the charges filed against D’Andrea and police are still investigating the incident, as is the city’s Office of Municipal Investigations.
The boy was taken to UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh where he was treated for the injuries.
Authorities said he was also having trouble breathing after the incident due to asthma.
