Camera videos of Friday’s meeting – released by the police department over the weekend – show officers holding the child in check, handcuffing her and trying to get her in the back of a police vehicle while she repeatedly cries her father. and call.
The officers responded to what police called a report of ‘family problems’ in a meeting that was sharply criticized by city officials. The incident led to protests in the community.
Herriott-Sullivan said in a statement that the decision to remove the officers from patrol came in response to Mayor Lovely Warren’s order that the three officers should be suspended immediately.
According to the statement, one officer was suspended and two were placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal investigation.
In two video camera videos, the officers are seen spraying the girl with pepper spray after she did not follow the instructions to put her feet in the car.
The girl was transported to Rochester General Hospital, where she was later released, according to police.
The officers involved were suspended Monday, city officials said. CNN reached out to the police union for comment.
CNN could not confirm the gender of the 9-year-old with authorities or family members.
At a news conference Sunday, Herriott-Sullivan said the treatment of the girl was not acceptable.
‘I’m not going to stand here and tell you that a 9-year-old has to be pepper sprayed. That’s not good, ‘she said. “I do not see it as who we are as a department, and we are going to do the work we need to do to ensure that these kinds of things do not happen.”
Warren said the girl reminded her of her own young daughter.
Police have called for a report of ‘family problems’
Officers were called to a home on the afternoon of Jan. 29 for a report of ‘family problems’, Rochester deputy police chief Andre Anderson said Sunday.
The officers were told that the girl was ‘suicidal’ and that she ‘indicated that she wanted to kill herself and that she wanted to kill her mother’, the deputy principal explained.
The girl tried to flee from officers, Anderson said, and the video released by police shows an officer chasing her and trying to help.
After that, he said, her mother showed up and in the video from the body camera, the two are seen arguing. Anderson said officers then decided to remove the child from the situation and transport her to a hospital.
But the girl refused to get into a police vehicle, “turned around” and kicked an officer and, according to Anderson, knocked over his body camera.
“It did not seem like she was resisting the officers, but trying not to be restrained from going to the hospital,” Anderson said. “As officers made several attempts to get her in the car, an officer sprayed the young child with OC spray to get her in the car.”
The body camera video shows the girl repeatedly yelling at her father while being physically restrained by officers. She is seen screaming before her head is held against the snow-covered ground and handcuffed. A fight ensues between the girl and officers as they try to get her in the back of a police vehicle.
At one point, one officer said, “You act like a child.”
“I’m a kid!” the girl responds.
Later in the video, a female officer is seen talking to the girl and finally saying, “This is your last chance, otherwise pepper spray will go into your eyeballs.” About a minute later, another officer can be heard saying, “Just spray her at this point.” The female officer is seen shaking a can that is apparently pepper spray and the child continues to scream.
The officers involved in the incident were not identified by police, nor was the child or her mother.
Anderson said on Sunday that he was “making no apologies for what happened” and that the department was “looking at a culture change”. According to Anderson, the department is reviewing many policies and making changes.
Mayor Warren said she had instructed the police chief to conduct a full and thorough investigation into the incident, and said she welcomed the review of what happened through the city’s police liability board.
After the officer’s suspension Monday, she said what happened was simply “terrible.”
“Unfortunately, the legislation and the trade union contract prevent me from taking more immediate and serious steps,” she said.
New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a tweet Monday that her office is also looking into the incident. She calls the incident ‘deeply disturbing and completely unacceptable’.
Governor Andrew Cuomo said in his state and across the country that the relationship between police and community “clearly does not work.”
“Rochester must take into account a real problem with police liability, and this worrying incident requires a full investigation that sends a message that this behavior will not be tolerated,” he said.
CNN’s Laura James, Eric Levenson, Saffeya Ahmed, Laura James, Sarah Jorgensen, Jessica Prater, Kristina Sgueglia, Hollie Silverman and Alec Snyder contributed to this report.