CNY CENTRAL – February 2nd 2021
By Sam Carter
Rochester, NY — Outrage in the city of Rochester and beyond continues after police used pepper-spray against a nine-year-old child.
The officers involved have been suspended and an internal review of the incident is underway. Governor Andrew Cuomo has also called for a full investigation into the incident.
In an interview Tuesday with CNY Central, the young child’s mother says she wants justice. Elba Pope says the whole incident started with a simple argument on January 29.
“We were outside. My daughter was upstairs in her room and I did not know she had overheard us arguing. I was unaware that she was upset, I was unaware that she was feeling any type of way or that she had even heard the fight or the argument,” said Pope.
Pope called the police on her spouse who she says took her car. When police arrived, Pope’s daughter started to get upset and her daughter left the house.
It was when Pope tried to get her daughter back into her house that she says police escalated the situation.
“He told me if I didn’t leave he was going to arrest me, I do not think if I left you would tackle my daughter in the snow, handcuff her and pepper spray her,” said Pope.
Pope says she repeatedly asked police for mental health assistance for her daughter. She says those requests were ignored.
She thinks if they had listened to her, this all could have been avoided.
“What he should have done was got on his walkie-talkie and ask for help not back up for police, but someone from mental health to help him with a 9-year-old child having a meltdown,” said Pope.
Pope says that justice for her daughter starts with discipline for the officers involved.
“They should be fired, if this was their kids, regardless to what happened prior, there is no reason why a child should be pepper-sprayed when she is already detained in handcuffs in a car,” said Pope.
Pope’s attorneys, Michael Joseph Witmer and Lorenzo Napolitano, have filed a notice of claim with the city of Rochester reserving their right to sue the city.
Michael Mazzeo, president of the Rochester Police Locust Club Union, during a press conference Sunday, said the situation was complicated and what the police did on scene shows the need of leadership to show officers what they can and can’t do in such a situation.
“This is not about lack of compassion or empathy,” Mazzeo said during a press conference Sunday. “We’re dealing with a very difficult situation and what officers are confronted with and face and the very limited resources that are out there.”
CNY Central has reached out to the Rochester Police Department and the Rochester Police Union for a response to Pope’s version of events.
We have not heard back.