9-Year-Old Girl Handcuffed, Pepper-Sprayed As Seen on Police Bodycam
Joshua Rashaad McFadden/Getty Images

Two bodycam videos were released on Sunday, showing Rochester officers restraining a nine-year-old girl who was handcuffed and pepper-sprayed when she disobeyed police commands.

The footage was released after Mayor Lovely Warren raised concerns about her child being harmed during the said incident that took place on Friday.

Warren said that she is a child, adding that as a mother, she does not want to see anything like that, according to a USA Today report.

The videos, which were released by the Rochester Police Department, showed that the girl was repeatedly screaming for her father as police officers try to restrain her after responding to a call over "family trouble" on Friday afternoon.

Police said that nine officers and RPD supervisors responded to the call.

Deputy Police Chief Andre Anderson was at a news conference on Sunday and described the girl as suicidal.

"She indicated she wanted to kill herself and she wanted to kill her mom," he was quoted on a report.

Police released a statement on Saturday, on which they said that the girl's actions required an officer to take her to the ground. However, they added that for the safety of the child and at the request of the custodial parent on the scene, they handcuffed the child and placed her in the back of a police car.

A female officer appears to shake a can in front of the girl. Moments later, the girl is audibly heard asking someone to wipe her eyes, according to a Huff Post report.

The child was taken to a hospital and was later released to her family, according to authorities.

The city's Office of Crisis Intervention Services was not alerted to the scene as the initial call to police involved numerous events happening at the same time, which needed a police response, according to Warren.

Office of Crisis Intervention Services is trained to respond to mental health-related calls. The same office last week introduced a Person in Crisis Team, which is intended to take over certain responsibilities from the police, according to a Democrat and Chronicle report.

Community Outrage

Meanwhile, community outrage is growing after the bodycam was released in public. Both activists and government have described the situation as overly aggressive.

Rev. Lewis Stewart of United Christian Leadership Ministry called for the immediate suspension of the officers involved on Monday.

Steward said that minors should not be handcuffed and the practice must be banned.

"Children must not be chemically sprayed. That too must be banned," Stewart was quoted on an Inside Edition report.

The incident highlighted once again the RPD, which was criticized last year after Daniel Prude was suffocated after officers put a "spit hood" over his head. Prude was a Black man and his family reported that he was suffering a psychiatric episode.

Prude died in March but only received little public attention. Months later his family released bodycam footage of the incident showing the naked man in a road and the hood covering his ace.

This resulted in the firing of the police chief, who then claimed that he did nothing wrong.