A “family trouble,” called for service in Rochester, NY has led authorities to investigate an incident caught on body camera which shows police handcuffing and pepper spraying a nine-year old girl, officials said Sunday.
Mayor of Rochester, Lovely Warren said she directed Chief of Police Cynthia Herriott-Sullivan to conduct an investigation into last Friday’s incident, and the city’s police accountability board also will also review events.
“This is not something that any of us should want to justify,” said Warren, adding that she saw “her baby’s face” when looking at the 9-year-old girl.
Police were called after a report that the girl was threatening to self-harm and also hurt her mother, Deputy Chief Andre Anderson told reporters.
When officers tried to move the girl into a police car to take her to hospital, she resisted, kicking one of the officers.
Body cam footage released bye the Department Sunday shows officers handcuffing the girl while she repeatedly screams for her father and refuses to get in the vehicle.
“You’re acting like a child,” one of the officers says.
The girl responds, “I am a child.”
In the video, officers can be heard threatening that they would pepper spray her if resistance continued. When pepper-sprayed, Anderson said, the “effects of that didn’t work.”
The video was heavily edited so it isn’t clear what happened before or after the video, though Anderson said the girl was eventually taken to Rochester General and subsequently released.
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