Rochester police officers handcuffed and pepper-sprayed a 9-year old girl, and it was all caught on video.
According to a report, the officers responded to a “family trouble” incident.
Two body camera videos of Friday’s incident released by the police department on Sunday show officers restraining the child, putting her in handcuffs and attempting to get her inside the back of a police vehicle as she repeatedly cries and calls for her father.
After the clearly traumatized child failed to follow command, the officers are seen pepper-spraying her.
The girl was transported to Rochester General Hospital, where she was later released, according to Rochester Deputy Police Chief Andre Anderson.
Many are outraged by the mishandling of the young girl, including Attorney Ben Crump.
“WOW. @rochester_ny_police handcuffed and pepper-sprayed a 9-YEAR-OLD GIRL during a family disturbance call. The officer says “You’re acting like a child.” And she responds “I am a child.”
Remember #DanielPrude died at the hands of this same police department last year.
There’s something so wrong about a cop who says “just spray her” to a little girl as she cries out for her daddy. As a father, THIS shatters my heart.
You cannot justify this!! It is madness… and it must change!“
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The officers involved were suspended (with pay) Monday, according to a news release from city officials. The suspensions are effective immediately and will last at least until an internal police investigation is concluded.
“I’m not going to stand here and tell you that for a 9-year-old to have to be pepper-sprayed is OK. It’s not,” Police Chief Cynthia Herriott-Sullivan said at a news conference on Sunday. “I don’t see that as who we are as a department and we’re going to do the work we have to do to ensure that these kinds of things don’t happen.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James says her office is looking into the incident, which she called “deeply disturbing and wholly unacceptable.”
She adds, “Such use of force and pepper spray should never be deployed against a child, period.”
James is also calling for “drastic reform” at the Rochester Police Department “to ensure that mental health professionals and child advocates are actually responding to people in need and when minors are involved, and that this type of behavior never occurs again.”
