Kissimmee police officer relieved of duty during domestic violence investigation

KISSIMMEE, Fla. — A Kissimmee police officer has been relieved of duty, pending the outcome of a criminal investigation into domestic violence.

It comes after his pregnant girlfriend says he pinned her down during a heated argument this weekend.

Antonio Johnson was disciplined last year after putting students in handcuffs at a local school, to show them what it would feel like to be arrested. This weekend, he was the one put in handcuffs by St. Cloud Police.

Osceola Corrections released the mug shot of the 31-year-old KPD officer, following his arrest. A heavily-redacted arrest report details a fight between Johnson and his five-months-pregnant girlfriend.

According to St. Cloud Police, Johnson started arguing with the soon-to-be-mother of his child about her speaking to an ex, noting that “the argument turned physical when Johnson took the woman’s phone out of her hands and held both of her wrists.”

The victim told investigators that Johnson slapped her phone from her hands, breaking her nail, before pulling her down by her hair and pinning her to the bed using both of his hands to pin her wrists. She says Johnson covered her mouth when she began to cry.

In a statement, Kissimmee Police Chief Jeffrey O’Dell said, “We take allegations of domestic violence seriously, especially when it involves one of our members.” He declined to comment further because of the open and active investigation.

Last May, FDLE was notified of an incident involving the very same officer, after a teacher at a K-8 charter school said Johnson “terrified students by handcuffing them and telling them that they would be arrested for no reason, calling the officer’s actions an abuse of power.”

Johnson was not a school resource officer there, but internal investigators determined he did use his handcuffs on three students during the incident.

At the time, he was given a written reprimand by KPD.

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