A news conference with a 15-year-old Maryland girl who was pepper-sprayed by police turned into a shouting match when the mayor showed up.
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Brito said Thursday that his officers acted in accordance with department policies and procedures when dealing with a combative teen girl who was later pepper sprayed on Sunday.
Police are shown pulling her from a bicycle as she attempted leave the scene of the accident and ultimately detaining her for lack of cooperation.
A Maryland police chief says officers used appropriate force in pepper-spraying a 15-year-old girl who wouldn’t cooperate in their investigation after she crashed her bicycle into a moving vehicle. Police charged the teen with assault, disorderly conduct, a traffic violation and marijuana possession as a juvenile.
“Put your feet in”.
Ficker told The Associated Press that her father did take her to a hospital after picking her up at the station.
She refused medical treatment at the scene, according to the report.
The videos show passersby watching as officers repeatedly told the girl, who was handcuffed, “you are going to get sprayed”, and ordered her to put her feet inside the patrol vehicle.
The body cam video followed a traffic accident involving the girl, who was on a bicycle, and a auto.
Her lawyer said she was sprayed four times, while the police chief said it was once.
According to the police, the officers who stopped the girl were trying to restrain her when she would not cooperate after a traffic accident.
“They recognized the fact that she is a juvenile”, he said.
Later, video shows officers trying to persuade the girl to put her feet inside the cruiser and then an officer spraying through a window. Ficker posted a photo of the girl and video of the incident on his Facebook page, noting that the alleged victim is only 5 feet tall and weighs 105 pounds.
A kick turns off one officer’s camera, though footage released Wednesday night also includes a first-person view of another officer him using pepper spray as the distraught teen presses her feet against the auto door.
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Ficker, retained by the mother, posted a bystander’s cellphone video on Facebook Tuesday. Please see our terms of service for more information. By screening submissions, we provide a space where readers can share intelligent and informed commentary that enhances the quality of our news and information. Because of the volume of reader comments, we can not review individual moderation decisions with readers. We make an effort to protect discussions from repeated comments â either by the same reader or different readers. We reserve the right to edit a comment that is quoted or excerpted in an article. “We didn’t want to use that level of force”.
