According to a new police body camera video released Thursday, a 9-year-old girl pepper-sprayed by police in Rochester, New York, last month pleaded, ‘Officer, please don’t do this to me,’ as she waited in the back seat of a police car, handcuffed.
‘You did it to yourself, hon,’ replies a female officer in the front seat.
A video of nearly 90 minutes is a compilation of edited footage from the cameras of officers. The police department has previously said that officers were responding to a “family trouble.” report.
The girl can be heard sobbing, whimpering and repeatedly saying, ‘I want my dad’ in the extended video of the Jan. 29 incident. She also tells the police that her handcuffs are too tight and that her eyes are burning.
.She asks several times when will a ambulance comes to clean the spray from her eyes and begs to get her handcuffs removed.
The handling of a child in distress by officers has triggered local protests and calls for urgent police reform.
