Horrifying Moment Police Use Pepper Spray On 9-Year-Old Girl
Police in upstate New York pepper-sprayed a 9-year-old, bodycam videos released on Sunday show.
Officers with the Rochester Police Department responded to a call for 'family trouble' and a possible stolen car around 3.30pm on Friday, the Democrat and Chronicle reported.
Cops were told by the girl's mother, her custodial parent, that she was suicidal and wanted to harm herself and others, according to the outlet.
'She indicated she wanted to kill herself and she wanted to kill her mom,' Deputy Police Chief Andre Anderson said at a Sunday news conference.
Cops said the girl was taken to a local hospital to receive 'the services and care that she needed,' after she was pepper-sprayed by the officers, and has since been released back to her family.
The incident comes after the March 2020 death of Daniel Prude sparked protests leading city officials to partially defund the police in order to launch the Person in Crisis Team, under the Office of Crisis Intervention Service.
The team, which became operational last week, did not respond to the Friday call because it involved 'a number events happening at the same time that required a police response,' Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren said, according to the Democrat and Chronicle.
'I'm very concerned about how this young girl was handled by our police department. It is clear from the video we need to do more in support of our children and families,' Warren said.
Police released two bodycam videos of the encounter on Sunday, with the first showing cops looking for her after she had run from the home.
Cops catch up with the girl and ask her not to run away from them before she alleges that her mother stabbed her father while the two were fighting on the porch, video shows.
'That was my blood that you seen off of my lip,' the mother tells her daughter.
The mom and daughter continue arguing, before the mom says: 'You watch this man put his hands on me all the time. ALL THE TIME.'
Cops then asked the mother if she had stabbed the girl's father, to which the girl says, 'Yes he did.'
'I got custody. You're my child. So you're going to take you're a** home right now,' the mom screams.
The mom and daughter continue to argue and cops direct the mother back to the home, the video shows.
Cops were also heard discussing whether to arrest the girl's mother who was 'trying to fight' bystanders who drove past.
'I want my dad. I want my dad,' the girl shouts at officers, who grip her clothing to her to keep from running.
The girl drops to the ground as officers try to put her in the back of a patrol car, the first video shows. The second video shows cops putting her into handcuffs while she lies face down in the snow.
'Get up,' a cop says to the girl as she lies in the snow.
'Can I please just get the snow off of me? It is cold,' the girl pleads. 'I just want to see my dad, please. For the last time. I demand it.'
A cop then tries to force her into the car and order her to sit up, saying: 'You're acting like a child.'
'I am a child, the f**k!' the girl retorts. She then demands for 'a girl officer,' and one shows up.
'I'm right here. Can you stand up? They'll get off of you if you get up. I got her. They will get off of you,' the female cop tells the girl as she further pleads to see her dad.
'I'll find your dad, okay? I'm going to get your dad, okay. But you need to get warm otherwise you're going to get hypothermia so sit back, okay? I'll get your dad, I promise.'
The girl continues to struggle with the female cop, who then says, 'I'm going to pepper spray you and I don't want to. So sit back. Come on, this is your last chance or pepper spray is going into your eyeballs. Come on, let's go.'
'Dear, just stop for a second and take a deep breath,' a male cop says, as the girl continues to struggle.
He then adds: 'Just spray her at this point.'
The female cop shakes her can of pepper spray and deploys it in the girl's face.
'Please wipe my eyes. Wipe my eyes please!' the girl cries at the end of the second video.
Cops claimed that the girl tried to kick at them as they tried to put her into the car and were 'required' to take to girl to the ground and handcuff her 'for the minor's safety and at the request of the custodial parent on scene,' cops said in a statement acquired by the Democrat and Chronicle.
Officers were also 'required' to deploy the pepper spray when she disobeyed multiple commands to put her feet into the car, according to the outlet.
Police Chief Cynthia Herriott-Sullivan said at the press conference that it was not okay to have the girl pepper sprayed, the outlet reported.
'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. 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,' she said.
Warren said the Police Accountability Board will review the incident.
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