Harrowing video emerged Monday of a 2018 incident in which police officers tried to marry a crying eight-year-old boy in his elementary school and told him he was going to go to jail.
Footage of body cameras from the December 14, 2018 incident shows two police officers for the sitting child, who reportedly has special needs, at Gerald Adams Elementary in Key West, Florida.
The boy had stabbed a teacher in the chest and was arrested on a criminal battery charge, according to the arrest warrant. The boy’s name was not mentioned in the report due to his age.
Although the incident happened two years ago, resentment arose after Tallahassee lawyer Ben Crump, who represents the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, shared video of the arrest on Monday.
Harrowing video appeared Monday of a 2018 incident in which police officers tried to handcuff a screaming eight-year-old boy at his elementary school in Key West, Florida
The officers told the child he was going to jail because they tried to handcuff him, but they did not fit in because they were too big
Although the incident happened two years ago, resentment arose this week after Tallahassee lawyer Ben Crump, who represents the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, shared it on Twitter, on Monday
‘Unbelievable !! @KWPOLICE uses “scared targeted” tactics on 8yo boy with special needs. He is 3.5 ft tall and 64 lbs, but they thought it would be appropriate to handcuff him and transport him to an adult prison for processing !! He was so small that the cuffs of his wrists fell off! he tweeted.
‘Right scared’ is a strategy used to keep juvenile delinquents out of a life of crime by briefly placing them in adult prisons to expose them to the harsh reality of imprisonment.
In this case, the boy was not sent to an adult prison, but cops tried to put him in cuffs and told him he was going to jail.
It’s not immediately clear if the rematch video is in a civil case against the Key West police department.
One officer behind the camera says, ‘You are going to jail. So you have to get up and put your hands behind your back. ‘
An officer then freezes the child when he puts his hands on a cabinet and is then handcuffed, but they are too big and do not fit.
The little boy looks down and meets the officers and whimpers and cries when asked to walk out of the school.
‘You understand that this is very serious, and I hate that you put me in this position and I have to do this. The thing about it is that you have made a mistake and that you have to learn from it and grow out of it and not repeat the same mistake, ‘an officer tells the young stranger
He was then escorted out of school and taken in a corpus car and later booked into a juvenile court facility.
A teacher is seen coming to the boy and comforting him before he is escorted out of school.
‘You understand that this is very serious, and I hate that you put me in this position and I have to do this. The thing about it is that you made a mistake and that you have to learn from it and grow out of it and not repeat the same mistake, ‘an officer tells the boy shit as he nods.
The clip ends with officers escorting the child to a squad car.
The boy was then booked into juvenile justice in Key West.
The status of the case is not immediately known.
According to the arrest report, the boy’s teacher said the child was not sitting properly in his cafeteria bench.
The teacher asked him several times to sit down, but he did not comply and she asked him to sit next to her.
He refused and said to her, ‘Do not put your hands on me.’
She then told the boy to run with her and he told her, ‘My mom will hit you a ** and stabbed her with his right hand.
The incident took place at Gerald Adams Elementary in Key West, Florida
Former San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro shared the video Monday, slamming the incident as ‘unbelievable’
Officer Michael Malgrat wrote in the report that he was in the school’s administrative office when the teacher and the boy arrived and the boy ‘had clapped his hands in fists and he was posture as if he was ready to fight. ‘
Key West police chief Sean T. Brandenburg said in a statement Monday that his officers did nothing wrong.
“Based on the report, standard governance procedures were followed,” he said.
Key West police spokeswoman Alyson Crean said she did not know the video was released.
Former San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro shared the video Monday, slamming the incident as ‘unbelievable’.
‘Police in Key West tried to handcuff an 8-year-old boy and transport him to prison to’ scare him immediately ‘. “Police need not play a role in punishing our children or inflicting traumatic stunts like these on our schools,” he said.
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