The Rochester, NY police department released images from body cameras on Sunday showing a 9-year-old girl being handcuffed and sprayed with pepper spray by police officers who responded to a family disturbance call.
During the incident, which occurred on Friday afternoon, the policemen restrained the girl, pushing her in the snow to handcuff her, while she shouted repeatedly for her father, shows the footage.
At one point, an officer said, “You are acting like a child.” She replied: “I am a child”.
When she refused to sit in a police car, a police officer sprayed her with pepper spray.
The incident brought a new scrutiny to the Rochester Police Department, months after the city was disturbed by the revelation that Daniel Prude, a black man, died of suffocation last year after Rochester police officers put him in a hood.
The treatment of Prude’s death prompted the town’s mayor to abruptly fire the police chief in September, and the department faced cover-up charges after it was revealed that police officers had characterized Prude’s death as a result of a drug overdose.
In the case of Prude, the footage of the body camera was released six months after his death, only after his family sued the city. At the time of death, authorities repeatedly sought to hide the videos from the public to avoid damaging consequences, according to city documents released last year.
At a news conference on Sunday, police department leaders pledged to be more transparent, releasing the camera footage of the girl’s body being sprayed with pepper about 48 hours after the incident. The video was edited to blur his face, and his name was not made public.
“I’m not going to stay here and say that for a 9-year-old to have to be sprayed with pepper it’s okay,” said Rochester Police Chief Cynthia Herriott-Sullivan.
City mayor Lovely Warren said the girl reminded her of her own 10-year-old daughter.
“I can say that this video, as a mother, is nothing you want to see,” said Warren, his voice rising with emotion.
“This is not something that any of us should want to justify, it can justify,” she added. “And it is something that we have to change.”
She and the policemen asked city policemen to respond to the incidents with more empathy and compassion, saying that the policemen needed better training to slow down the escalation and that the department needed an overhaul of its internal culture.
The incident highlighted the longstanding problem that, in many police departments, police officers are trained to subdue violent suspects and are generally ill-equipped to deal with people who are disturbed or mentally ill.
On Friday afternoon, the police received a call to 911 reporting “family problems” and arrived to find the 9-year-old girl dressed in a black hood and colorful leggings. She “indicated that she wanted to kill herself and wanted to kill her mother,” said Deputy Police Chief Andre Anderson on Sunday.
The girl initially tried to escape, said Anderson. She repeatedly shouted to the police, “I want my dad.” As the police handcuffed her, she begged them to stop, her body covered with snow, showed the video.
The officers tried to escort her to the back of a police car so that she could be transported to the hospital, Anderson said.
Distressed and emotional, the girl said she didn’t want to get in the car until she saw her father, the video showed. The officers became increasingly impatient and severe. She kicked one of the policemen, Anderson said.
Other policemen encouraged her to relax and take a deep breath.
Finally, a policeman said, “Just spray it now”
She screamed. After a police officer sprayed her face with an irritating substance, the officers put her in the back seat and closed the door. “Unbelievable,” said an officer.
The scene took place in front of houses in an area that appeared to be a residential neighborhood. The video showed at least six police vehicles that arrived to answer the call.
The girl was transported to the hospital and was discharged.