Officers accused of holding 11-year-old girl at gunpoint in her bedroom
theGRIO REPORT - Two Florida officers are under investigation for allegedly using excessive force against an 11-year-old girl. The officers were responding to a burglary alarm that had accidentally been tripped at the girl's home in Groveland...
Two Florida officers are under investigation for allegedly using excessive force against an 11-year-old girl.
The officers were responding to a burglary alarm that had accidentally been tripped at the girl’s home in Groveland. They let themselves in through the garage and found the young girl watching television in her bedroom.
The 11-year-old girl said one of the officers pointed a gun at her.
“One of the officers was pushing me down and when he was pushing me down,” she told WFTV. “[He] put his knee on me and the other officer had his gun pointed at me.”
Watch the 11-year-old girl explain what happened to her below:
Jean Guirand, the girl’s father, has asked the department’s internal affairs to look into the case after noticing that the police report released on Sunday did not contain anything about their interaction with his daughter.
“Someone should be fired for doing something like that to an 11-year-old,” he said.
Both of the officers involved in the incident over the weekend, James Festa and John Rigdon, have been disciplined several times in the past.
According to WFTV’s Anthony DiLorenzo, Festa and Ridgon are “career cops” who have been members of the Groveland Police Department for three years.
