INFURIATING

Body-Cam Video Shows 6-Year-Old Girl Crying, Pleading for Help as She Gets Arrested

The first grader was forced into handcuffs and hauled into a police SUV in Florida last September for allegedly kicking school employees.

A body camera video uncovered on Tuesday reveals six-year-old Kaia Rolle forced into handcuffs and hauled into a police SUV while pleading for help at a Florida elementary school last September, in an arrest that sparked national outrage. Kaia is seen in the video crying and begging the officers to let her go. “No ... no, don’t put handcuffs on!,” she screamed, after the officers fastened zip ties around her wrists. “Help me, help me, please!” Kaia, a first grader at Lucious and Emma Nixon Academy, reportedly had a tantrum that day and kicked three employees. She was charged with misdemeanor battery, according to an arrest report. After the officers put Kaia in the backseat of the police SUV, Officer Dennis Turner returned to the school’s office and asked one employee for a statement. “The restraints, are they necessary?” one of the school employees asked. Turner responded with, “If she was bigger, she would have been wearing regular handcuffs.” Turner proceeded to tell the school workers that the youngest person he had arrested was seven years old. Florida reportedly does not have a minimum age for arrest, but Orlando Police Department officials said Turner—who was fired after the incident—acted improperly by arresting a child younger than 12 without a supervisor’s approval.