‘I Don’t Want to Go in a Police Car.’ Body Camera Footage Captures Handcuffed 6-Year-Old’s Tearful Pleas During Arrest at School
Officials have said that the officer also arrested a 6-year-old boy at another school on the same day as girl's arrest
(ORLANDO, Fla.) — A police officer’s body camera shows a 6-year-old Florida girl crying and begging officers not to arrest her as one fastens zip ties around her wrists at a charter school.
The video Kaia Rolle’s family shared with the Orlando Sentinel and other media outlets Monday shows the girl being arrested in September for kicking and punching staff members at her Orlando charter school.
“What are those for?” Kaia asks about the zip ties in the video. “They’re for you,” Officer Dennis Turner says before another officer tightens them around her wrists and Kaia begins weeping.
Turner was fired shortly after the arrest. Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rolon said at the time that Turner didn’t follow department policy of getting the approval of a watch commander to arrest someone younger than 12.
“Help me. Help me, please!” Kaia pleads through tears. As she is being walked to the vehicle, she cries, “I don’t want to go in a police car.” The second officer, who has not been identified, responds, “You don’t want to? … You have to.”
“Please, give me a second chance,” Kaia says.
The video shows the officer lifting the sobbing girl into the back seat of the police vehicle and putting a seat belt around her.
A short time later, Turner returns to the office to talk to Lucious & Emma Nixon Academy administrators, who appear dismayed by what they have witnessed in the school office.
The officer tells them that the juvenile detention center where Kaia was headed is “not like you think.” Turner tells the administrators he has made 6,000 arrests, including a 7-year-old.
When school employees tell the officer that Kaia is 6, not 8 like he thought, he replies, “Now she has broken the record.”
Officials have said that Turner also arrested a 6-year-old boy at another school on the same day as Kaia’s arrest for misdemeanor battery in an unrelated incident. However, the boy’s arrest was halted by superiors before the child made it through the full arrest process. State Attorney Aramis Ayala said last September that she was dismissing misdemeanor battery charges against both children.