A frightened 11-year-old New York woman broke into tears when upstate deputies positioned her in handcuffs for a number of minutes after mistaking her for a automobile thief, footage of the mix-up exhibits.
The woman was strolling house from Brighton Academy Center Faculty in Syracuse with a gaggle of buddies on Monday afternoon when two deputies from the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Workplace stopped her 5 blocks from the place a gaggle of teenagers had ditched a stolen Kia, Syracuse.com reported.
The deputies positioned the shocked woman in handcuffs for seven minutes, claiming that she was carrying the identical pink puffer jacket, camo pants and white sneakers one of many alleged thieves was described as carrying, video taken by the woman’s cousin exhibits.
The opposite kids repeatedly informed the deputies that they had the improper individual, however the deputies insisted she was the wrongdoer, even displaying them a photograph of the suspect, based on the footage.
“Girl, you gonna tell me this ain’t you?” one deputy says to the handcuffed woman.
“It is what it is,” her accomplice added. “If you’re honest, it will make it easy.”
The woman’s cousin tried to clarify that the suspect had lighter pores and skin and longer hair.
When extra deputies pull up on the scene, the 11-year-old begins crying because the gravity of the scenario hits her.
Finally, after almost seven minutes in handcuffs, the deputies realized that that they had the improper woman, launched her and apologized for the confusion.
“I’m sorry about it, but you matched the description pretty clearly,” they informed the coed, video exhibits.
The woman’s mom was outraged over what occurred to her daughter, who now “no longer wants to walk to and from school anymore.”
“That was the only freedom she had, and it’s now gone,” the mom, who wished to stay nameless, informed WSAZ.
“I can’t make sense of it. I couldn’t even finish watching the video. Even if it wasn’t my child, I wouldn’t be able to finish watching the video because that’s not how you handle children,” the horrified mother mentioned.
The stolen Kia led police on a seven-minute pursuit earlier than 4 occupants stopped the automobile and fled on foot, the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Workplace mentioned in a information launch.
The motive force, a 14-year-old boy, was arrested after a foot chase. Two different boys, 13 and 17 years previous, had been additionally arrested — however the suspect within the pink coat has not been discovered, the sheriff’s workplace mentioned.
The Sheriff’s Workplace on Tuesday defended its resolution to detain the younger woman, which it mentioned was “lawful and reasonable, given the juvenile’s proximity and clothing description.”
Detainees are sometimes handcuffed so deputies can take management of the scenario and in case suspects try to flee or resolve to combat, Newton defined.
Sheriff Tobias Shelley had met together with her mom, who had “concerns about why the police didn’t inform her that her daughter was detained as part of a criminal investigation.”
“The Sheriff agrees that moving forward, it will be OCSO policy to notify a parent or guardian of any juvenile who is detained for criminal investigative purposes, no matter how brief the encounter is,” Newton mentioned.
