Girl, 9, Handcuffed And Pepper Sprayed By Police

Police in the US handcuffed and pepper sprayed a nine-year-old girl after they were called to a report of 'family trouble'.

Officers were called to the address in Rochester, New York, on Friday (29 January) and were told the girl 'wanted to kill herself and she wanted to kill her mom', according to Rochester Deputy Police Chief Andre Anderson, as per CNN.

The girl initially tried to flee, but she was restrained by police, and bodycam footage shows her desperately screaming for her dad.

Rochester Police Department

After refusing to put her feet in the car, an officer can be heard telling her: "This is your last chance, otherwise pepper spray's going in your eyeballs."

Another officer then added, 'Just spray her at this point', and she was subsequently sprayed.

Anderson said: "It didn't appear as if she was resisting the officers, she was trying not to be restrained to go to the hospital.

"As the officers made numerous attempts to try to get her in the car, an officer sprayed the young child with OC [oleoresin capsicum] spray to get her in the car."

The girl was taken to Rochester General Hospital and later released.

Mayor Lovely Warren condemned the officers at a press conference at the city hall yesterday (31 January), stating she was 'very concerned about how this young girl was handled by our police department'.

Rochester Police Department

She added: "I have a 10-year-old daughter. So she's a child; she's a baby. And I can tell you that this video, as a mother, is not anything that you want to see. It's not.

"We have to understand compassion, empathy.

"When you have a child that is suffering in this way and calling out for her dad... I saw my baby's face in her face."

Rochester Police Department said it would review bodycam footage and 'conduct an internal review to make sure policy has not been violated'.

Police Chief Cynthia Herriott-Sullivan said: "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.

"I don't see that as who we are as a department and we're going to have to ensure that these kinds of things don't happen."

Topics: Police, US News

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey