The 2018 arrest of an 8-year-old boy in Florida came under scrutiny Monday after video of officials trying to captivate the child was posted online.
Photographs of body arrest cameras were shared late Sunday night by attorney Benjamin Crump on Twitter and were viewed more than 1.1 million times Monday. Crump’s involvement in the case is unclear, but he said it was “unbelievable” that Key West police officers were trying to use “bang bang” tactics on 8yo boys with special needs. “
“He is 3.5 ft tall and 64 lbs, but they thought it appropriate to handcuff him and transport him to an adult prison for processing !!” Crump tweeted. “He was so small that the cuffs fell off his wrists!”
The short clip posted Sunday night by Crump showed officers discussing that the boy’s hands were too small for handcuffs. The officers stopped their attempt to handcuff him and asked him instead to hold his hands in front of him as he walked out of the school.
At one point, one of the officers talked to the child about his actions.
“I hate that you had to put me in this position to do this,” the officer said. “The thing is, you made a mistake. Now is the time to learn from it and grow out of it, not repeat the same mistake.”
A woman also appears briefly in the video, but her involvement is unclear.
Crump did not immediately respond to an e-mail and phone call from NBC News asking for more information.
The boy, who has not been identified as a juvenile, was arrested on Dec. 14. 2018, after beating a teacher at Gerald Adams Elementary, according to an arrest report. The teacher asked the boy to sit “properly” in his sofa while she was supervising the lunch room and he refused several times.
She then asked the boy to sit next to her and he refused, the arrest warrant said. When the teacher went to the boy with the intention of guiding him to where she was sitting, he presumably stated “do not put your hands on me” and cursed at her.
The boy then allegedly punched her in the chest, the arrest report stated. The boy’s parents were contacted and the child was taken to the Monroe County Detention Center.
“Based on the report, standard operating procedures were followed,” Key West Police Chief Sean T. Brandenburg said in a brief statement to NBC News.
Key West police official Alyson Crean confirmed to NBC News that the department is not in any lawsuit regarding the incident and is not aware of how Crump got the video. She told NBC News that the department could not release the full incident video because the subject of the video is a youth.
The status of the boy’s criminal case is unclear and in the police report his status of special needs is not mentioned.
Twitter users responded to Crump’s post and criticized both the school’s officers and staff for the police’s involvement in the young boy’s incident.
“Search! So many people are to blame here. SMH.,” one user responded. “What happened to counselors, social workers, and behavioral therapists ??? Why police ??? An eight-year-old baby with special needs? Misunderstanding language” sorry, but you made me do this to you. “Yes, blame the child, he? “
A Monroe County School District spokeswoman declined to comment on the incident in case it became a legal case, but confirmed to NBC News on Monday that the district was not currently in court over the arrest of the child.
