(AP) — A Mississippi police chief is accused of choking a 17-year-old while working as a school resource officer.

News outlets reports 49-year-old Samuel Carter Jr. is charged with aggravated assault in the August confrontation at Yazoo County High School.

The male student told authorities Carter shoved him into an occupied girl’s restroom and choked him. Carter said the student attacked him.

Carter previously worked for the Yazoo City Police Department and has a pending discrimination lawsuit against it. The lawsuit accuses the city, which is 82% black, the city’s black mayor and the city’s black police chief of discriminating against Carter, a black man.

The complaint dates back to when Yazoo had a white police chief and says promotions in February 2015 only included white officers.

Carter is on administrative leave.