The newly released body camera footage shows two Maryland police officers handcuffing and scolding a 5-year-old boy who allegedly left school without permission.
The Montgomery County Police Department released the video on Friday. It was recorded in January 2020 and contains disturbing content.
“I watched in horror what can only be described as a nightmare that has gone on for almost an hour,” said Will Jawando, a Montgomery County Council member, in a tweeted statement. “It made me sick.”
The video begins after police find the unidentified boy on what appears to be a residential street in southern Maryland, near the Washington border.
“Listen to me. How old are you?” an unidentified policeman asks the boy.
“Five,” replies the child.
“Five? Do you feel like you can make your own decisions?” the policeman asks. “Do you feel like you can do what you want?”
The child is agitated soon after and starts to cry and scream. The police take the boy to the back of the patrol car and the shouting continues.
“You better stop,” the police said to the boy.
As the 50-minute video unfolds, interactions between the police and the child increase. The boy sobs and looks inconsolable as the police repeatedly tell him that he is “bad” and that he should be beaten.
“Does your mother hit you? Does your mother hit you? She is going to hit you today, ”one of the policemen can be heard saying.
When the boy doesn’t stop crying, a policeman screams a few inches from his face. Later, after the child was reunited with the mother, a policeman removes a pair of handcuffs and places the boy’s wrists inside them.
“Do you know what they are for? They are for people who don’t want to listen and don’t know how to act,” says the policeman to the boy.
Montgomery County Police said in a statement that both officers remained employed in the department after an internal investigation, the full conclusions of which are confidential under Maryland law.
The boy’s mother filed a lawsuit earlier this year against Montgomery County, Montgomery County Public Schools and the Montgomery County Police Department, NBC Washington reported. She is seeking compensation and justice for the child’s trauma.
In a statement, Montgomery County school officials said the video was “extremely difficult for us to watch”.
“Our heart hurts for this student. There is no excuse for adults to speak or threaten a child in this way, ”said the statement in part. “As parents and grandparents, we know that when families send their children to school, they expect staff to look after them, keep them safe and use appropriate intervention processes when necessary.”
Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 35, the union representing Montgomery County police, declined to comment on the matter, citing pending litigation.
Community organizers wrote an open letter asking that police officers be suspended or fired.
“The incident became national news, but more than a year later, it has not been fully addressed. This delay in accountability is unjustifiable and unacceptable, ”they said in the letter.