Six-year-old schoolgirl arrested and bound with cable ties
Footage of a police officer’s bodycam has been released which shows a six-year-old girl being arrested and having her hands bound with cable ties.
Kaia Rolle is seen crying and begging officers not to arrest her in the footage, which was released by her family’s lawyer.
She had been accused of kicking members of staff at the Lucious and Emma Nixon Academy in Orlando in September last year.
But when the footage begins, captured on the camera of Officer Dennis Turner, she is sitting calmly listening to a teacher read a story.
When Kaia sees the cable ties in the hands of a second officer she asks: “What are those for?”
The teacher replies: “They’re for your hands.”
As the ties are strapped round her wrists, Kaia begins to sob uncontrollably – saying “I don’t wanna go” and asking for help from the teacher.
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She continued to cry after being led out of the school – asking the officer “to give me a second chance”.
After being strapped into the back of the police car, she asks to be let go.
The police officer then goes back into the school, and is asked by a member of staff whether the restraints are necessary.
He replies: “Yes, and if she was older she’d be wearing regular handcuffs.”
News reports said police had been called after Kaia acted up in class and kicked out at staff.
But in an interview with local news website Click Orlando, Kaia’s grandmother Meralyn Kirkland said she told the police that Kaia suffers from a lack of sleep because of a medical condition and her behaviour was the result of her being exhausted.
Ms Kirkland had to collect Kaia from a juvenile detention facility where she was fingerprinted, had her mugshot taken and was charged with battery.
Dennis Turner has now been fired, and an internal investigation has been launched.
Police chief Orlando Rolon: “As a grandfather myself, I understand how traumatic this incident was for the children and everyone involved.”
