Police in Hagerstown, Maryland, have released body-camera video of an officer using pepper spray on a 15-year-old girl inside a a police cruiser, after she refused to tuck her feet inside the auto.
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Officers from the Hagerstown Police Department responded to the scene of an accident Sunday afternoon after the girl, whose identity has not been released, reportedly hit a auto with her bicycle.
When the girl began to struggle, a natural reaction considering the circumstances, the officers handcuffed and shoved her into back of their auto.
Body cam video show a pair of officers putting the girl in handcuffs as she screams and pleads with them not to call her parents, though police eventually carry her off to a patrol vehicle. “She got on her bike, started peddling away to go home, and a huge officer grabbed her off her bike without any warning whatsoever from behind”.
The 15-year-old Maryland girl who was pepper sprayed is shown in a photo posted September 20, 2016, by her attorney, Robin Ficker, on his Facebook page.
A 15-year-old Maryland girl pepper-sprayed by police says she resisted arrest because she was dizzy, confused and scared after her bicycle hit a moving vehicle, briefly knocking her unconscious. After he sprays the teen he then closes the door to the patrol auto as she screams “Oh my God I can’t breathe”.
In the video, the girl said she didn’t need medical treatment several times, and didn’t answer when officers asked her name. She was then charged with assault and disorderly conduct as well as failure to obey a traffic device and marijuana possession.
Kifer explained to WTOP that since the girl was a minor, the officers had to have parental approval if she refuses medical assistance.
In the video, an officer tells a bystander, “All we want to do is make sure she’s OK”. An officer later pepper-sprays her to get her into a cruiser. Numerous alleged actions of the officers occurred in this Facebook video, and body cam footage is reportedly on the way, which Ficker says will reveal the rest.
The girl’s dad took her to a local hospital about three hours after the incident to get the pepper spray washed out of her eyes.
The family attorney said the girl has a white mother and black father. Another tells other officers, “I’ll just spray her if you want to step back”.
Hagerstown Police Chief Victor Brito strongly defended the actions of the officers in a news conference Thursday, saying the girl had become “assaultive” and “combative” and would not cooperate with police.
All the officers involved remain on duty. “The only treatment she got from police was slamming, abuse and mace [to the face]”.
Ficker, retained by the teen’s mother, posted a bystander’s cellphone video of the arrest on social media on Tuesday, before the police video was released. “That’s a little girl and they pepper sprayed her”.
A prosecutor says a special grand jury has been empaneled to investigate New York’s foster care system.
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Even if the officers had wanted to take her to the hospital, they had no legal grounds for doing so forcibly, Ficker said. Police reported a group of protesters causing increased traffic and congestion in Hagerstown Wednesday night.
