When Orlando police officers arrived at the Lucious & Emma Nixon Academy last September, Kaia Rolle, 6, was sitting in an office, listening to a school employee read a story.
“What are those for,” Rolle asks the cops about the zip ties one of them was holding.
“They’re for you,” Orlando police officer Dennis Turner says as the second officer tightens them around her wrists as the school employee tells the girls she must go with the cops.
“No … no, don’t put handcuffs on!” the girls pleads weeping.
But the cops were determined to take her to jail after school administrators accused the girl of kicking and punching three employees. Her grandmother, Meralyn Kirkland, said the girl was only acting out because she suffers from sleep apnea and was sleep deprived that day in September.
But in the eyes of police and school administrators, she was a criminal and needed to be jailed rather than be sent home for a nap.
The incident took place on September 19 and led to the firing of Turner because he had violated departmental policy by not contacting a supervisor when arresting a child under the age of 12. The body camera video was released this week.
“Help me, help me, please,” Rolle continues to plead in the video as the cops continue to arrest her.
Once the officers and Rolle leave the building, she continues to plead with the officers.
“I don’t want to go to the police car,” Rolle says.
“You don’t want to? You have to,” a second unidentified officer responds.
“No, please, give me a second chance,” Rolle cries.
“Please, please, please,” Rolle begs as the officer lifts her into the SUV.
Once the child was placed in the car, Turner’s body camera shows him talking to the school employees to get statements. One of the employees ask if the restraints were necessary.
“Yes, and if she was older, she would be wearing real handcuffs,” he responds.
Using cop logic, the officer tells them that the youngest he has arrested was a seven-year-old, in hopes to ease their mind.
The officer then brags that he has a record of arresting 6,000 people over his 23 years of working in law enforcement.
The officer does not stop bragging there.
“Now she has broken a record,” the officer says once finding out her age, which is incorrect as he arrested another 6-year-old earlier in the day.
The police were called due to Rolle’s tantrum earlier in the day, where she kicked and punched three of the schools employees.
Rolle suffers from sleep apnea, which causes her to act out at times. The school has been working with Rolle on how to manage this and were fully aware of her condition.
By the time officers arrived, the school already deescalated the situation.
She was originally charged on misdemeanor battery, but the state later dropped the charges.
According to the arrest report, officer Turner wrote that Beverly Stoute, a member of the school’s faculty, had requested to press charges against Kaia.
The school has denied what the officer wrote.
In an unrelated incident, Turner arrested a 6-year-old boy at Nixon Academy, earlier in the day on misdemeanor battery. The arrest was stopped midway by his superiors. Details about this arrest are currently unknown.
Rolle did not have the same fate as the boy, as her mugshot was taken and she was fingerprinted.
The following day after Rolle was arrested, prosecutors dropped the charge.
Orlando Police Department currently has a policy where officers can not arrest someone under the age of 12, without a supervisor’s approval.
A supervisor did not agree to this arrest, causing Turner to violate the policy. With that, the state of Florida does not have an age requirement on arrests, yet.
Kirkland, Kaia’s grandmother, is hoping to change that and make Orlando Police Departments policy a statewide law.
“I knew that what they did was wrong, but I never knew she was begging for help,” Kirkland said, according to Tampa Bay Times.
Kirkland goes on to say:
“You’re discussing traumatizing a 6- and 7-year-old — and that’s a boasting right for you? These are babies.”
Kaia has since enrolled in a private school that does not have an officer on duty.
Turner was terminated a week later.
Turner’s complaint record has been filled with numerous complaints over the 23-years he has been employed.
He was disciplined seven times for violating the department’s policies.
Within the complaints, he was involved with a child-abuse case where he injured his own 7-year-old sone, drove unsafe, racial profiling, and sending threatening text messages to his ex-wife.