Galveston pool party incident: Resident speaks about alleged assault by former officer

HOUSTON - Arnold Graham, the man in the Galveston pool party incident involving former police officer Jared Rivas, has spoken out about his experience. 

In an interview with FOX 26, Graham detailed his allegations of a severe assault by Rivas and his interactions with federal investigators.

Graham, a 25-year-old resident of the apartment complex where he said Rivas also lived, described how the incident unfolded on June 25. According to Graham, the video footage from that day shows him face down on the ground, restrained by a uniformed officer. While Rivas, who was working as a courtesy officer at the Island Bay Resort, repeatedly punched him in the head. 

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"I stepped in between him and her because I just wanted everything to stop," Graham said. "Not once did he seem to try to de-escalate the situation there. He seemed pretty out of control."

Graham, a father of three, intervened when Rivas, who was off-duty and in plain clothes, was reportedly shouting at a woman and engaging in a physical altercation with teenagers at the pool. Graham was arrested during the incident, but those charges were later dropped.

Following the incident, Graham alleged that Rivas threatened him, prompting Graham to move out of Galveston due to safety concerns. "It's been tough because my life has been uprooted. We were soon to move into a place of our own, and begin our lives as parents...and now it's been changed," Graham said. The man also says he suffered a concussion in the incident.

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Graham is now advocating for better training for police officers and has called for Rivas to be barred from practicing law enforcement in any capacity. "We see this happening all the time across the country," said civil rights attorney Randall Kallinan. "A violent police officer is let go from one agency and then arrives somewhere else with no additional training." 

Kallinan also says Graham was interviewed by an FBI Civil Rights Division agent in this incident. 

The Galveston Police Department reports Jared Rivas has been terminated. A city spokesperson tells FOX 26 any potential criminal charges against him would be determined by the District Attorney's office.