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Police attacked a black woman they suspected of shoplifting while her 3-year-old stared at her, then pepper sprayed her face as she held her toddler, according to video footage of the February 22 incident that authorities released on Friday.
The arrest took place in Rochester, New York, after police responded to a report of a suspected shoplifter in Rite Aid, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reported.
In body camera footage of the incident, a policeman can be heard interrogating the woman, asking her what she “stole from that store” and telling her “I don’t have time for BS, you would. better be quick with me. “
The woman denies stealing anything, opening her purse and showing it to the officer, and taking out diapers and other items, saying, “I didn’t steal anything”.
The agent then tells her that she must stay with him until they speak with the store workers, at which point the woman begins to run away with her toddler. The police quickly caught up with her and she was heard repeatedly saying, “I didn’t do anything!”
The police then aggressively pinned her to the ground to handcuff her, as her child can be heard screaming and crying “mum, mum”. The woman is heard saying to the officers: “I did not steal anything!”
In security footage from the arrest, the woman is seen grabbing her child’s hand as she stands up, and an officer sprays her pepper on her face and attempts to push her onto the ground again as another agent separates his hold on his toddler.
“This chick was fighting, saint smokes!” an officer can be heard saying immediately after arrest. He then argues loudly with a bystander who filmed the incident, saying he was not helping.
Body camera footage shows the child screaming in distress and the police prevent him from running towards the police car where the woman is being held.
The woman’s child was not hit by pepper spray during the arrest, police said in a report. declaration. Police did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BuzzFeed News.
The officer involved in the incident has been placed on administrative duty pending investigation, and the woman has been charged with trespassing< car le magasin a confirmé qu'elle avait jeté un certain nombre d'articles sur les étagères et refusé des demandes répétées de départ >> Acting Police Chief Cynthia Herriott -Sullivan reportedly said.
Herriott-Sullivan suggested the police adhere to the protocols, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reported, but added: “Just because we can do certain things, right?”
“If the person is physically resistant, you are generally safe with the uses of pepper spray,” she said. “You only want to go as far as it’s necessary. You don’t want to go beyond that.”
In a statement obtained by Rochester City News, Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren said video of the incident was “disturbing”.
“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,” Warren said.
The conduct of Rochester police officers has been widely criticized following several violent and high-profile interactions police have had with black residents. The February 22 incident occurred less than a month after officers in Rochester sprayed a 9-year-old girl with cayenne pepper and told her she “had done it to [her]self. “
In March 2020, a black man named Daniel Prude was detained naked and handcuffed by Rochester Police, who placed a hood over his head and pinned his face to the ground for two minutes. Prude died of asphyxiation, and her death only gained national attention after her family’s video released footage of the violent incident.
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