In a video that has sent shock waves across the netizens, a six-year-old girl Kaia Rolle was seen getting arrested and her hands restrained behind her back using a zip tie by the Orlando police who charged her with battery at her school, Lucious and Emma Nixon Academy in Orlando.
The arrest report prepared by the police officer mentions Kaia was arrested after she punched and kicked school employees.
The viral video shows a wailing first grader crying for help as the police officers made her sit in the back of the police care before being taken away to the police station. The arrest was made by Officer Dennis Turner, who was on duty that day as a school resource officer.
Wailing six year boy begs for second chance
The incident took place in September 2019. The video, captured with the help of body camera, was released by the family's lawyer.
In the video, Turner along with an unseen officer could be seen entering an office. The officer then asks Kaia, who is seen seated calmly with an employee from the school, to stand up. "Come over here," the officer says to Kaia as she points towards the zip ties and asks, "What are those for?" the officer responds by saying, "It's for you."
Another officer tells the crying six-year-old "Give your hands, OK? Come over here, honey." As soon as the officer restrains Kaia with the zip ties, she begins crying and screaming "Help me. Help me, please."
She could be heard begging the officers, "No, no, don't put handcuffs on." The officer then leads the restrained and wailing Kaia to the police car parked outside the school. "I don't want to go in the police car," she says in between her hysterical sobs. The officer is heard replying, "You don't want to. But you have to."
"No, please. No, please, give me a second chance. Please, please just let me go," is heard begging the officer before he makes her sit on the back seat of the police car.
Kaia is undergoing counselling sessions twice a week
According to Kaia's grandmother Meralyn Kirkland she threw a tantrum at Lucious and Emma Nixon Academy in Orlando. She said that Kaia was released after the police recorded her fingerprints and took mugshots by making her stand on a stepstool.
In September, addressing a press conference, Kirkland had said: "No 6-year-old child should be able to tell somebody that they had handcuffs on them, and they were riding in the back of a police car and taken to a juvenile center to be fingerprinted, mug shot."
According to family's lawyer Kaia has been moved to different school and is undergoing counselling sessions twice a week.
Turner flouted rules by arresting Kaia without approval from seniors
Following the arrest, Turner boasted about Kaia being the youngest person to be arrested by him.On his return to the school after putting Kaia in the police car Turner was asked by a school employee whether it was necessary to restrain the child. "Yes. Uh, and if she was bigger, she would've been wearing regular handcuffs," replied Turner.
He went to boast about arresting a 7-year-old for stealing from a store. "The youngest kid I've ever arrested was a 7-year-old who was stealing from Albertson's. I thought it was a joke. Seven is the youngest. She's 8, isn't she?" the officer said.
Upon being told that Kaia was just 6, he said: "She's 6? Now she has broken the record. She broke the record."
Turner also claimed to have arrested another 6-year-old in another incident on the same day he arrested Kaia. The police department fired Turner on the grounds that he did not follow the department's policy of getting an approval of the watch commanded before arresting a child under the of 12 years.
