A 9-year-old girl who spray-painted police in Rochester, New York last month, pleaded last month: ‘Officer, please do not do this to me’ while waiting handcuffed in the back seat of a police cruiser . police camera camera video released Thursday.
“You did it to yourself,” replied a female officer in the front seat.
The nearly 90-minute video is a compilation of edited footage from officers’ cameras. Police earlier said officers were responding to a report of ‘family problems’.
In the extended video of the January 29 incident, the girl can be heard sobbing, whining and repeatedly saying, “I want my dad.” She also tells police that her handcuffs are too tight and that her eyes are burning. She repeatedly asks when an ambulance will come to clean the pepper spray from her eyes and begs to remove the handcuffs. An officer can be heard telling her that an ambulance is on its way.
“If you stick your head out the window, the cold air is going to feel nice,” an officer tells her.
“It’s burning too bad,” said the girl.
“It’s supposed to burn. It’s called pepper spray,” an officer replied.
An ambulance arrived about 15 minutes after the girl was sprayed with pepper spray, the Democrat and Chronicle, a Rochester newspaper, estimated. The newspaper said that more than 23 minutes elapsed before one of the handcuffs in which she was placed was removed.
The new video comes from the body cameras of several officers and was distracted to blur the girl’s face. Mayor Lovely Warren said she would release all the videos from the body cameras after they were redirected.
“We are committed to being transparent and sharing all the information and videos regarding this incident and all of our investigations with the community,” Warren said in a statement Thursday. “I still share the outrage of our community over the treatment of this child and have ensured that she and her family are committed to the support they need through our Person in a Crisis team.”
The newly released video provides a fuller picture of the incident that attracted international attention and re-investigated a police department. Officers’ handling of a child in need sparked local protests and called for immediate police reform. The actions of the officers were condemned by Warren, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Rochester police are scrutinizing the death of Daniel Prude last year in police custody. Police handcuffed Prude, a black man, put a spittoon on his head and pushed him to the ground. The body camera video in Prude’s case was released six months after his death, only after his family sued the city. It showed Prude, who was having mental health issues, handcuffed and bald with a spittoon over his head.
Cuomo said the videos released Thursday were “even more shocking and disturbing” than before.
“This is symptomatic of a broader problem – the relationship between police and communities is being damaged and needs to be rectified,” he said in a statement. “Officers are sworn to protect and serve and this horrible behavior can never be tolerated.”
A police spokesman, Capt. Mark Mura said on Friday that nine officers had responded to the scene, four of whom were “actively dealing with the 9-year-old”. One officer was suspended and three others were placed on administrative leave, he said.
Officers responded to a report of “family problems,” Deputy Chief of Police Andre Anderson said Jan. 31. ‘Officials were made aware that a 9-year-old’ girl ‘had indicated that she wanted to kill herself and that she wanted to kill her mother. “and that she initially tried to run away,” Anderson said.
Footage that appeared days after the incident shows authorities handcuffing the girl as she repeatedly yelled at her father and refused to get into the vehicle.
In the video, officers can be heard saying they would spray pepper on her if she resisted.
The girl’s mother, Elba Pope, had earlier told NBC News that she had called police during an altercation with her husband. Pope said she would sue the city and the police department. She filed a notice of claim.
“No one who treats a 9-year-old child like that should be in law enforcement to help anyone,” she said.
Her lawyer, Donald Thompson, said on Friday that Pope had seen the new video, which he described as “disturbing and horrific” and that she had been traumatized again.
Thompson said: “It makes one ask: What kind of adult feels that their only option in a situation like a 9-year-old child is pepper spray?”
“It’s more the same,” he said. “This makes it so much clearer that the Rochester Police Department has some major issues with recruiting, appointing and training its officers and their ability to respond appropriately to potential mental health situations.”
