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This obituary is part of a series on people who died in the coronavirus pandemic. Learn more about the others here.
Honestie Hodges, who was handcuffed by police outside her Grand Rapids, Mich., Home at the age of 11 in a frightening incident that sparked outrage and national headlines in 2017, died on Sunday. She was 14 years old.
Her death, at the Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids, was caused by Covid-19, her grandmother Alisa Niemeyer wrote in an article on the GoFundMe website.
The incident took place on December 6, 2017. Honestie had walked out the back door of her house with her mother and another family member to the store when they were confronted by police officers with their guns in. fire.
“Put your hands on your …” an officer ordered them before being interrupted by Honestie’s mother who shouted: “She is 11, sir!”
“Stop screaming!” Replied the officer, as recorded by an officer’s body camera. He ordered Honestie to walk back towards him with her hands in the air.
A second policeman grabbed her arms, pulled them behind her back, and handcuffed her. Honestie shouted, “No, no, no!” Begging the officers not to handcuff her. Police, who said they searched for a 40-year-old woman in connection with a stabbing, removed the handcuffs after several minutes.
The incident sparked widespread uproar which led to some soul-searching within the Grand Rapids Police Department. At a press conference, then police chief David Rahinsky said “Listening to the 11-year-old’s response turns my stomach; it makes me nauseous physically. He retired in 2019.
None of the officers were sanctioned for not violating any departmental policies, Rahinsky wrote in a statement at the time. Nonetheless, the ministry admitted that the officers had made an error in the way they treated the child.
By that time, police were already under fire for a similar meeting in March in which five innocent teenagers were held at gunpoint.
At the time, Honestie, who was black, spoke up. “I have a question for the Grand Rapids Police Department: If this happened to a white child, if her mother was screaming, ‘She’s 11,’ would you have handcuffed her and put her in the back of a car? police?” she was quoted on MLive.com, a Michigan news site.
In March 2018, the police department adopted the “honesty policy,” which called for using the least restrictive options when dealing with young people. Despite this, several other incidents involving police pointing guns at children have increased tensions in Grand Rapids. A local television station, WOOD-TV, reported this summer that Honestie and her family were negotiating with the city to settle a claim filed over the handcuffing episode.
Honestie developed severe stomach pain on November 9, her 14th birthday. Taken to hospital, she tested positive for the new coronavirus and was sent home. But her condition worsened that evening, an ambulance was called and she was admitted to the hospital’s intensive care unit. Over the next few days, she received iron and blood transfusions due to complications. She was placed on a ventilator on November 14. But his condition never improved. Ms. Niemeyer updated the GoFundMe page asking for prayers.
Then on Sunday Mrs. Niemeyer wrote: “It is with an extremely heavy heart that I have to tell you that my sassy, intelligent and loving beautiful granddaughter has returned home to be with Jesus.
Ms Niemeyer had set up the GoFundMe page to collect donations for her daughter, Whitney Hodges, who had had to stop working to care for Honestie and her four other children.
Lynn Sutfin, spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, said Honestie was not the youngest person to die from Covid-19 in Michigan.
The federal Centers for Disease Control said deaths from Covid-19 in children were rare overall, but Hispanic and black children were more likely than their white peers to be hospitalized or admitted to a care unit intensive.
Ms Niemeyer told WOOD-TV, a local television station, that Honestie had been “healthy and happy” with no underlying health issues.
“She could have been the vice-president one day, or maybe the president,” Ms. Niemeyer said. “The world was open to him.”
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