New footage released of New York state officer pepper-spraying nine-year-old girl
Over an hour of video shows the interaction between multiple police officers, a little girl and her mother
Extended footage of the nine-year-old girl who was pepper-sprayed by police in upstate New York has been released.
Read More: ‘I am a child!’ Pepper spray reflects policing of Black kids
The disturbing video features a child in Rochester, New York, being forcefully placed in the back of the police car. The full 86-minute video was released on Thursday and has prompted calls for immediate police reform, per The New York Times.
“Listen to me — you’re going to get sprayed if you don’t get in,” says an officer to the girl as she is being forcefully placed into a police car by two officers.
“Get in the car,” yells another. “I’m done telling you.”
During the struggle an officer can be heard telling the girl,” You are acting like a child.”
The girl responds, “I am a child!”
She is then pepper-sprayed.
New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo called the longer video “even more shocking and disturbing” than the shorter version that was initially released.
He calls the way the officers handled the altercation “symptomatic of a broader problem — the relationship between police and communities is damaged and needs to be fixed.”
Nine officers were responding to a family dispute when they first encountered the girl on Jan. 29.
At the top of the video, the girl’s mother is on the front porch talking to an officer to report her boyfriend had stolen her car.
The video appears to go in and out at moments and it is unclear why the child left the home in the first place though police later say the mother said her daughter was suicidal.
In the next moments of footage, the officer runs after the girl who was seen walking down the street with a small bag. At first, he tries to calm her as she is upset and crying.
She then accuses her mother of stabbing her father and her mother, who follows the officer down the street, answers back and appears to attempt to strike her. Then the mother’s attention is distracted by a car going by and she gets into a verbal altercation with the occupants of the car.
After the child’s mother is restrained, the girl gets increasingly upset. That’s when the police response becomes aggressive as they try to force her into a police car while she’s screaming that she wants her father.
“You’re going to go to jail now too,” a police officer is heard saying.
The police then say they are going to arrest the mother as they handcuff her daughter. Ultimately, though the mother does not get arrested, she does get lectured by one of the police officers.
“You’re so concerned about your daughter suicidal/homicidal and you’re going to start a fight with people in a van,” he yells at the mother, who apologizes. “I gotta run after your daughter, I gotta fight your daughter and you’re busy fighting with somebody in a van,” the unidentified police officer continues. “Now I gotta do paperwork why I put down a nine-year-old girl to the ground.”
The mother, who is pregnant, starts crying and tells police that her daughter had threatened to kill her and her baby.
The town’s mayor, Lovely Warren, commended city officials for releasing the video and said, they are “committed to being transparent and sharing all of the information and video regarding this incident.”
Donald Thompson is representing the girl’s family and calls the extended video, “far more disturbing” and said, according to the New York Times, “The lack of humanity is amazing.”
Have you subscribed to theGrio’s podcast “Dear Culture”? Download our newest episodes now!
TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire, and Roku. Download theGrio today!
