Newly released body-camera footage shows the moment a police officer in Florida arrested a six-year-old girl as she cried and begged not to be taken from school.
Kaia Rolle was led to a police vehicle with her hands fastened behind her back in zip ties after having a tantrum at her school in Orlando that included kicking and punching school personnel.
By the time police officers arrived at the Lucious & Emma Nixon academy, she had already settled down.
In the video, Kaia can be seen seated and listening to a teacher read as officers approach her.
After she asks what the zip ties are for, an officer, Dennis Turner, responds: “They’re for you.”
Kaia starts to cry as a second officer, who has not been identified, binds her wrists.
“Help me. Help me, please,” she can be heard pleading and crying, as officers restrain her.
The first-grader’s family released the footage of the September incident to the public late on Monday.
According to the Orlando police department, a supervisor must first be present to approve the arrest of a child younger than age 12. Turner reportedly did not contact one.
In the clip, he brags about having arrested other minors. and attempts to reassure school officials that the juvenile detention center is not that bad.
He tells administrators he has made more than 6,000 arrests in his career, including of a seven-year-old, for shoplifting. School employees tell him that Kaia is six.
“Now she has broken the record,” Turner replies.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, both Kaia and a six-year-old boy Turner arrested at another school the same day were initially charged with misdemeanor battery.
The state attorney Aramis Ayala announced last September, however, that she would dismiss the charges against both children.
source theguardian.com
