WARNING: The video included in this article contains disturbing content.
Rochester Police pepper-sprayed and handcuffed a 9-year-old girl after reporting to a call about "family trouble." Rochester officials offered the disturbing bodycam footage from the disturbing incident that took place last week. Two different body cameras captured the altercation that shows two cops using excessive force towards a 9-year-old girl by putting her in handcuffs and forcing her into the back of a cop car.
Police said they responded to calls of a "family disturbance" after the 9-year-old child allegedly threatening to harm herself and her mother. Police said that they went to the home to take her to the hospital. The footage reveals police pinning the 9-year-old girl to the ground in order to handcuff her as she calls for her father. The girl resisted, prompting one of the officers to say "Stop acting like a child" to the 9-year-old. "I am a child!" she's heard responding.
The officers threatened to pepper-spray the child if she didn't comply. Eventually, the officer did while the girl pleaded for anyone to wipe her eyes. The girl was later taken to the hospital where she was later released.
"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," Interim Rochester Police Chief Cynthia 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."
City officials and citizens in Rochester, NY have been troubled by the footage and the incident. No officer has been identified nor has any additional details surrounding the incident.