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Rochester Police released two body-camera videos of officers restraining a distraught 9-year-old girl who was handcuffed and sprayed with what police called a chemical “irritant.”
ROCHESTER, NY – Rochester Police released two body camera videos on Sunday showing officers restraining a distraught 9-year-old girl who was handcuffed and sprayed with what police called a chemical “irritant.”
The Democrat and Chronicle reported that before the videos were released, Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren expressed concern for “the child who was injured in this incident on Friday.”
“I have a 10-year-old child, so she’s a child, she’s a baby. This video, as a mother, is not something you want to see, ”Warren continued.
A total of nine officers and supervisors responded to the “family issues” report on Friday. The young girl can be heard in body camera videos of officers at the scene frantically screaming for her father as officers attempt to restrain her.
At a press conference on Sunday, Deputy Police Chief Andre Anderson described the girl as suicidal.
“She indicated that she wanted to kill herself and that she wanted to kill her mother,” he said.
Officers tried to force the girl into a patrol car, but she pulled away and kicked them. In a statement on Saturday, the police department said the action “forced” an officer to take the girl to the ground. Then, the ministry said, “for the safety of the minor and at the request of the custodial parent at the scene,” the child was handcuffed and placed in the back of a police car while they waited for the child. arrival of an ambulance.
Police said the girl disobeyed orders to put her feet in the car. An officer was then “forced” to spray an “irritant” on the face of the handcuffed girl, the department said on Saturday.
At Sunday’s press conference, Police Chief Cynthia Herriott-Sullivan described the irritant as pepper spray. She refused to defend the actions of the officers.
“I’m not going to stand here and tell you that for a 9 year old it’s okay to get pepper sprayed.” It is not, “said Herriott-Sullivan.” I don’t see it for who we are as a department, and we’re going to do the job that we need to do to make sure that stuff doesn’t happen. “
Police said the girl was eventually taken to Rochester General Hospital, “where she received the services and care she needed,” and was later returned to her family.
The Rochester Police Department has come under intense scrutiny since Daniel Prude’s death last year after officers from the department put a hood over his head and smash his face against the sidewalk.
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