Shocking video shows 5-year-old boy being yelled at by Maryland police

A Maryland police department released body camera video that captured two of its officers berating a 5-year-old boy who had left his elementary school, calling him a “little beast” and threatening a beating.

Video released Friday by the Montgomery County Police Department shows one of the officers repeatedly yelling at the crying girl, her face inches from his.

“Oh my gosh, I would hit him so bad,” the officer said in the boy’s presence before telling him, “Don’t embarrass me like that at school.”

The boy’s mother filed a lawsuit over the January 2020 interaction. Attorneys for the boy’s mother, Shanta Grant, said the video shows officers treating her son “as if he were a hardened criminal.” They said Grant seeks “justice and just compensation for the trauma he endured.”

“He also hopes that the incident will lead to changes in policy and training, both at the school and in the police,” attorneys Matthew Bennett and James Papirmeister said in a statement.

The Washington Post reports that the county police department and public school system declined to address the incident in detail, citing the mother’s pending lawsuit. But the school system released a statement describing the video as “extremely difficult” to watch.

“There is no excuse for adults to talk to or threaten a child in this way,” the school system said. “As parents and grandparents, we know that when families send their children to school, they expect staff to care for them, keep them safe, and use appropriate intervention processes when necessary.”

A spokeswoman for the police department told the newspaper that the two officers in the video remain employees of the department after an internal investigation.

“A thorough investigation of the entire event was conducted,” the department said in a statement.

The boy’s mother sued Montgomery County, the county board of education and the two officers. Their complaint names the officers, but the department has not released their names.

Police department spokesman Rick Goodale said he cannot comment beyond the department’s written statement on Friday or say whether the officers were disciplined.

“These are all confidential personnel records under (Maryland) law,” he wrote in a text message to The Associated Press on Saturday.

Officers found the boy one block from East Silver Spring Elementary School and took him back to the school, where they were greeted by a school administrator. The video shows an officer forcing the crying boy into a chair in the principal’s office.

“Shut up that noise now!” the other officer yelled close to the boy’s face. “I hope your mom lets me beat you.”

One of the officers removed his handcuffs and closed one of the ties around the boy’s right wrist.

“Do you know what these are for?” he asked the boy. “These people who don’t want to listen and don’t know how to act.”

The two officers involved in the incident are Black, as is the 5-year-old, according to Goodale.

Montgomery County Council Member Will Jawando said the video “made me sick.”

“We all saw a child being made fun of, demeaning him, putting him in the seat of a police car, yelling at him from the top of an adult police officer’s lungs, inches from his face. This is violence,” Jawando said.

Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich said in a statement Friday that he directed the county police chief to review training on how officers are expected to interact with children.

“Our police officers are not social workers, psychologists or therapists and should not give advice or instructions on parenting. Police duties should end as soon as school personnel are present to take care of children. a child, “he said.

Elrich also said he is “limited” in what he can say on the matter while the mother’s lawsuit is pending and cannot discuss “the disciplinary results that have been taken.”