Rochester cops handcuff and pepper-spray 'suicidal' girl, 9, in bodycam footage, say she's 'acting like a child'
ROCHESTER, NEW YORK: The Rochester police department released distressing body-camera footage on Sunday, January 31, that showed a 9-year-old girl being handcuffed and pepper-sprayed by police officers who had responded to a family disturbance call. During the incident, which happened on Friday, January 29 afternoon, officers restrained the girl, pushing her into the snow in order to handcuff her, while she screamed repeatedly for her father, the footage showed. At one point a cop can be seen saying, "You're acting like a child." "I am a child, the f**k!' the girl retorts. She then demands 'a girl officer" and one shows up.
And when she refused to sit in the police car, an officer pepper-sprayed her. The release of the video footage by the Rochester Police Department came after Mayor Lovely Warren expressed concern for the “child that was harmed during this incident that happened on Friday.”
Warning: Video may be disturbing to viewers
The incident took place after the officers at the Rochester Police Department responded to a complaint of 'family trouble' and a possible stolen car around 3.30 pm on Jan 29, the Democrat and Chronicle reported. Cops were told by the girl's mother, her custodial parent, that the child was suicidal and wanted to harm herself and others. 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.
Before being caught by the police she had alleged that her mother stabbed her father while the two were fighting on the porch, the footage shows. "That was my blood that you seen off of my lip," the mother told her daughter. The mom and daughter are heard arguing as the cops ask 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 was heard screaming.
Warning: Video may be disturbing to viewers
Meanwhile, a police officer is heard trying to comfort the distressed child saying: '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." However, the girl continued 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 then sprayed the irritant on her face.
“I have a 10-year-old child, so she’s a child,” Warren said. “She’s a baby. This video, as a mother, is not anything you want to see.” “This is not something that any of us should want to justify, can justify, and it’s something we have to change,” the mayor added.
At a press conference on Sunday, January 31, Deputy Police Chief Andre Anderson described the girl as suicidal. "She indicated she wanted to kill herself and she wanted to kill her mom,” he said. In one of the videos, an officer can be heard asking the girl, “What is going on? How can I help?” When officers then tried to put the girl into the back of a patrol car, she pulled away and kicked at them.
In a statement Saturday, January 30, police said the girl's actions “required” an officer to restrain her, adding that “for the minor’s safety and at the request of the custodial parent on scene,” the child was handcuffed and put in the back of a police car as they waited for an ambulance.