The Rochester Police Department in New York on Thursday released extensive camera footage of the incident late last month in which police sprayed a nine-year-old girl with pepper.
In the pictures, that police department posted to YouTube, several of the nine agents who responded to one You can hear the notification of “family problems” threatening the girl as they struggle to get her behind a police car.
“Listen to me: he’ll hang you if you don’t get in,” an officer says, according to the material.
“Get in the car,” says another. “I’ve just said that.”
“I’m going to sprinkle pepper on you and I don’t want to,” one officer says. “So sit down.”
“Please don’t,” the girl says.
One of the officers ends up scattering peppers on the girl, closing the door while the girl shouts, “My eye is bleeding!”
“Officer,” he sobs to a woman in front of the car, “please don’t do this to me.”
The officer replies, “You did it yourself, sir.”
The 90-minute footage, significantly longer than the eleven-minute video released shortly after the incident, appeared as part of the city’s commitment to “be transparent and share all the information and video about this incident.” , Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren (D) said.
“I continue to share our community’s outrage at the treatment of this child,” Warren added, according to The New York Times.
Deputy Director of Police Andre Anderson he said during a press conference when the initial police material was released, officers were told the girl “indicated that she wanted to commit suicide and wanted to kill her mother.”
Anderson added that the girl fled the house and was chased by an officer. Officers tried to get the girl into a police vehicle for several minutes, as the girl refused, called her father, fought, and at one point fired the camera at an officer’s body before another sprayed it.
Anderson said at the time that the boy was taken to Rochester General Hospital and later released.
The incident quickly went viral and sparked widespread outrage, with many claiming that police used force inappropriately against a minor.
Warren confirmed to The Hill earlier this month that several agents were involved in the incident had been suspended. The suspensions were to be applied immediately and will continue at least during an internal police review.
Elba Pope, the girl’s mother, she said days later that officers ignored her during the incident when she told them her daughter had a mental health crisis.
Pope’s lawyers have filed a formal notice of intent to sue the city for “emotional distress, assault, battery, excessive force, false arrest, false imprisonment,” according to the Washington Post.