US Police Release Footage Showing Officer Pepper-Spraying 9-Year-Old Girl

(@FahadShabbir)

US Police Release Footage Showing Officer Pepper-Spraying 9-Year-Old Girl

The police department of Rochester city, located in the US state of New York, released footage showing a 9-year-old girl being handcuffed and pepper-sprayed by officers who were responding to a family disturbance call

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st February, 2021) The police department of Rochester city, located in the US state of New York, released footage showing a 9-year-old girl being handcuffed and pepper-sprayed by officers who were responding to a family disturbance call.

According to The New York Times, the incident occurred on Friday. After receiving a 911 call, police officers arrived at the scene and found the 9-year-old girl.

Deputy Police Chief Andre Anderson said that she "indicated that she wanted to kill herself, and she wanted to kill her mom," as quoted by the media outlet. According to him, the girl first tried to escape, while the police officers were trying to put her in the back seat of a police vehicle and take her to a hospital.

Anderson also said that she had kicked one of the police officers.

The footage shows that the girl was refusing to sit in the car until she saw her father. When the officers handcuffed her, the girl was lying on the snow and she asked them to stop. After the girl once again refused to get into the car, an officer used pepper spray.

According to the publication, Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren called on police officers of the city to respond to similar incidents with more empathy and compassion. She noted that the police needed better training in de-escalation in situations involving distraught or mentally ill people.

The girl has already been discharged from hospital.