‘HE IGNORED ME’

Mom of 9-Year-Old Girl Pepper-Sprayed by Rochester Cops Says They Ignored Pleas for Mental-Health Help

Recounting her pleas for her 9 year old with the police, mom Elba Pope said: “I was saying, ‘We need mental-health out there,’ ... He ignored me.”

Body-cam footage of a 9-year-old girl who was handcuffed and pepper-sprayed by police in Rochester, New York, shocked the nation last week—now the girl’s mom has shed some more light on the incident. Speaking to The Washington Post, Elba Pope said she repeatedly told an officer at the scene that her daughter was having a mental-health breakdown and she begged them to call out for a specialist instead of cuffing and spraying her. According to Pope, the officer simply responded: “No.” The mom recounted: “I was saying, ‘We need mental health out there,’... He ignored me.” Mayor Lovely Warren announced Monday that the three officers involved in the incident would be suspended. Justin Roj, a spokesman for Rochester city government, didn’t comment on Pope’s latest account of the incident.