Police officers in Rochester, New York, are under investigation after they pepper-sprayed a nine-year-old girl. The officers, who were not identified, were responding to a report of "family trouble" on Friday (January 29) afternoon.
The officers were told the young girl was "suicidal" and had threatened to kill her mother. As the situation at the home escalated, the officers decided to remove the girl from the scene and take her to a local hospital.
The girl refused to go, and the officers pushed her down in the snow and placed her in handcuffs. She started screaming and kicking the officers as she called out for help from her father. Body camera footage released by the Rochester Police Department shows officers trying to calm the young girl down and warning her that if she doesn't cooperate, she will be pepper-sprayed.
"This is your last chance, otherwise pepper spray's going in your eyeballs," a female officer told the girl.
The girl refused to calm down, and the officer sprayed her in the face. She was taken to a local hospital and was later released.
Rochester Police Chief Cynthia Herriott-Sullivan said that the department has launched an investigation and called the officers' actions unacceptable.
"I'm not going to stand here and tell you that for a 9-year-old to have to be pepper-sprayed is OK. It's not," Herriott-Sullivan said. "I don't see that as who we are as a department, and we're going to do the work we have to do to ensure that these kinds of things don't happen."
Michael Mazzeo, the president of the police union, defended the officers and pointed out this wasn't the first incident officers have had with the young girl.
"This is incredible that we're dealing with a 9-year-old girl, but this is not the first time she has been put in handcuffs," he told WHEC. "We're dealing with a very, very difficult situation and what police officers are confronted and faced. And the limited resources that are out there."
Photo: Rochester Police Department