Rochester police released two body camera videos of officers holding a distraught 9-year-old girl handcuffed and sprayed with what police called a chemical ‘irritant’.
ROCHESTER, NY – Police in Rochester on Sunday 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’.
The Democrat and Chronicle reported that the mayor of Rochester, Lovely Warren, expressed concerns prior to the release of the videos about the “child harmed in this incident on Friday.”
“I have a 10-year-old child, so she’s a kid, she’s a baby. This video, as a mom, isn’t all you want to see, ”Warren continued.
A total of nine officers and supervisors responded to the report of “family problems” on Friday. The girl can be heard in the body camera videos of officers on the ground screaming frantically for her father as the officers try to restrain her.
At a press conference 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 drove off and kicked them. In a statement on Saturday, police said the action “required” an officer to bring the girl to the ground. Then the department said, “for the safety of the minor and at the request of the caring parent on site,” the child was handcuffed and placed in the back of a police car while they waited for the arrival of an ambulance.
Police said the girl ignored orders to put her feet in the car. An officer was then “required” to spray an “irritant” in the handcuffed girl’s face, the department said Saturday.
At Sunday’s press conference, Police Chief Cynthia Herriott-Sullivan described the irritant as pepper spray. She refused to defend the officers’ actions.
“I’m not going to stand here and tell you it’s okay for a 9 year old to be sprayed with pepper spray. It isn’t, “said Herriott-Sullivan.” I don’t see that as who we are as a department, and we’re going to do the work we need to do to make sure things like this don’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 released to her family.
Rochester police have been under scrutiny since the death of Daniel Prude last year after officers from the department put a hood over his head and put his face on the sidewalk.