Police officers involved in spraying pepper on a 9-year-old girl in Rochester, New York, have been suspended, the city announced Monday. The suspensions are effective immediately and will last at least until an internal police investigation is concluded.
“What happened on Friday was just horrible and has outraged the entire community,” Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren said in a statement. “Unfortunately, state legislation and the union contract prevent me from taking more immediate and serious action.”
Warren said he would “lead the charge” to change these laws to “allow cities to issue discipline more quickly in cases like this.”
Officers were suspended on pay, provided a unpaid suspension could not last more than 30 days without a completed internal investigation, according to CBS-affiliated WROC-TV. The city did not say how many officers were suspended. Earlier reports indicated that a total of nine officers and supervisors responded to the “family problems” report on Friday.
On Saturday, Deputy Police Director Andre Anderson said the girl threatened to kill herself and her mother. The Rochester police department said in a statement that officers tried to force the girl into a police vehicle, but she tried to pull away and kicked the officers. The department said this “required an officer to bring the minor to the ground.”
Once she was in the back of the car, police said the girl ignored several orders to put her feet inside the vehicle and that an officer was “forced” to spray her with a chemical irritant. In the body camera video released Sunday, before the girl was sprayed, an officer can be heard saying, “Just spray it right now.”
The girl was eventually taken to a local hospital.
“I won’t stay here and tell you that for a nine-year-old you have to spray pepper is okay. It’s not like that,” Cynthia Herriott-Sullivan, police chief, told reporters on Sunday. “I don’t see it as who we are as a department and we will do the work we have to do to ensure that this kind of thing doesn’t happen.”
The police department is conducting an internal review of the incident and the Rochester Police Accountability Board is also investigating, according to WROC-TV.