Black mother sprayed with pepper in front of her toddler, police say

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The incident is the latest involving Rochester police officers that has drawn widespread criticism and condemnation.

Bodycam footage from the February 22 incident shows an officer, responding to a shoplifting complaint, confronting a woman, who is seen holding the toddler.

The woman continues to show the officer the inside of her purse, insisting she hasn’t stolen anything.

The video shows the officer asking the woman to wait with him, but she runs away with the child in her arms. The officer then chases her down the street, attacks her in a parking lot and holds her back.

Three Rochester police officers are pulled from patrol after 9-year-old girl is handcuffed and sprayed with pepper

The child can be seen wandering and crying in the midst of the struggle until another officer arrives at the scene and drives the child away.

In a statement, the Rochester Police Department said officers were responding to a report of a shoplifter who “was arguing with store workers and refusing to leave.”

The woman who was pepper sprayed matched the suspect’s description in the complaint, police said.

“The child was not pepper sprayed or injured during his arrest,” the statement continued. “The woman was charged with trespassing and given an appearance ticket.”

The officer in question was put on administrative duty until an internal investigation was completed, police said.

The Rochester Police Department did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

Multiple incidents

Rochester Police Chief Cynthia Herriot-Sullivan told a press conference on Friday that it appears that officers are following the department’s policy on pepper spray, which is allowed if the individual “physically resists “.

But questions arise as to the need to use such force.

Protesters rally in the streets of Rochester after news that no officer will be charged in the death of Daniel Prude
The department has come under fire since the death of Daniel Prude last year, a black man who was suffering from a mental health crisis.

Rochester police handcuffed him and covered his head with a “spit sock” after he spat at the police, according to body camera footage.

At another meeting on January 29, body camera footage showed Rochester officers handcuffing and pepper spraying a 9-year-old while responding to what police said was a “family problem” report .
Another incident occurred in May 2020 when a 10-year-old girl was handcuffed during a traffic stop.

‘A different strategy’

The Police Accountability Board, which held a press conference on Friday to deal with the incident, said the department needs to “fundamentally change its organizational culture.”

Counsel said there were “troubling parallels” between the February 22 incident and the 9-year-old’s pepper spray in January.

“Both incidents involved black mothers. Both involved black children. Both involved black people clearly in crisis. Both involved officers using pepper spray on or around a black child,” the council statement read.

Black girls are often treated like adults in encounters with the police, experts say. Rochester is just one example.

The Rochester Police Union did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Rochester Deputy Police Chief Andre Anderson told Friday’s press conference the department was working on “policy changes,” which include training courses on de-escalation and race relations.

“We have to understand how to respond to young people and where they come from,” he said.

“When incidents like this happen, I am relieved to have ensured that our police officers wear body-worn cameras, so that we can see what is happening on our streets and hold officers accountable,” Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren said in a statement.

“Change will not happen until we have the ability to fully hold our officers to account when they violate public trust,” she said.

CNN’s Saffeya Ahmed, Laura James, Kay Jones, Alec Snyder and Kristina Sgueglia contributed to this report.

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