Body camera footage of a Black 6-year-old's September arrest is being released nearly six months after the incident.
According to News 6, 6-year-old Kaia Rolle was arrested at a charter school in Orlando for allegedly throwing a tantrum in September. The video, which was released Monday, shows the girl pleading helplessly as an officer put her in handcuffs before taking her away in a police SUV.
The former school resource officer, who is also Black, told a school employee “she’s going to have to come with us now.”
"What are those?" the 6-year-old asked as the officer pulled out the handcuffs.
“It’s for you,” the officer says.
“No, no, I don’t want handcuffs on.” Kaia pleads and cries. “No, don’t put handcuffs on. Please.”
She continued to beg as she's being dragged away, saying "I don’t want to go in the police car. Please give me a second chance. Please, let me go.”
The merciless officer still took the helpless first-grader to a county juvenile center, where her mugshot and fingerprints were taken.
Meralyn Kirkland became more disturbed after seeing footage of her granddaughter getting arrested at Lucious and Emma Nixon Academy.
“I knew that what they did was wrong, but I never knew she was begging for help,” Kirkland told the Orlando Sentinel. “I watched her break.”
Kirkland said she was especially outraged by a part of the video which shows officer Dennis Turner bragging about the number of children he has arrested.
"Six thousand people I have arrested over 28 years, a lot of people. Seven is the youngest," Turner said in the video. "She is 6? Now, she has broken the record."
According to The Sentinel, Turner also tried to arrest a young boy at Nixon Academy the same day as Kaia in an unrelated incident.
“You’re discussing traumatizing a 6 and 7-year-old — and that’s a boasting right for you?” Kirkland said. “These are babies.”
The grandmother said Kaia's sleep apnea causes her to act out, but the family has been working with the school to manage the problem. According to The Sentinel, Turner wrote in Kaia's arrest report that the assistant principal wanted to press charges because the girl kicked her on the legs and punched her several times.
Kirkland told News 6 that Turner ignored the girl's condition, saying "Well, I have sleep apnea, and I don't behave like that."
"How do you do that to a 6-year-old child and because she kicked somebody?" Kirkland 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."
A charge of misdemeanor battery against Kaia was dropped, while Turner was fired shortly after the incident in September. Although Turner violated the agency policy for arresting children younger than 12 without a supervisor’s approval, state law doesn't require a minimum age for arrest in Florida, The Sentinel reported.
According to BuzzFeed, Kaia is now enrolled in a new school. Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rolón said the department now requires arrests of children under the age of 12 to be approved by a deputy chief.
"As a grandfather myself, I understand how traumatic this incident was for the children and everyone involved," Rolón said in a statement.