Video shows officer arresting 6-year-old girl at school as she cries for help

A video released this week shows the moment a 6-year-old girl was arrested last year and placed into a police car outside her school in Orlando, Fla., as she pleaded for help and a “second chance.”

In body camera footage obtained by the Orlando Sentinel that was published on Monday, the young girl, Kaia Rolle, could be seen reading a book with a school official when she was approached by Dennis Turner, a school resource officer with the city’s police department.

{mosads}“What are those for?” she asked Turner as he began to take out white zip ties.

“They’re for you,” he responded as he could be seen placing the restraints around Rolle’s wrists.

Moments later, Rolle began to cry, pleading with the officers, “No, don’t put handcuffs on!”

“Help me. Help me, please!” she yelled as they walked her to a police car.

According to the newspaper, Turner and another officer, Sergio Ramos, had been called to the school last September after Rolle reportedly threw a tantrum and hit staff.

At the time of the incident, an arrest record reportedly stated that a school official wanted to press charges against the first grader. However, the school has since denied that claim, according to the paper. Prosecutors had also reportedly declined to pursue charges then.

Turner was reportedly fired last year shortly after reports of the arrest emerged, which led to a wave of public backlash. 

Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rolón said when he announced Turner’s termination last year that he had violated a policy that requires officers to receive approval from a supervisor before arresting minors under the age of 12, according to the paper. 

Turner, who has worked at the police department for more than two decades, later reportedly received a position in the department’s reserve unit before he eventually retired from the agency.

Prior to Rolle’s arrest last year, Turner reportedly had been disciplined several times for “violations of department policy that ranged from unsafe driving to a child-abuse arrest in which he was accused of injuring his 7-year-old son,” according to the Orlando Sentinel.  

He also had allegedly admitted to arresting a 7-year-old boy when he spoke to school officials in footage of his arrest of Rolle. 

“Now she has broken the record,” Turner said in the video.

On the same day he arrested Rolle, Turner also reportedly started to arrest another 6-year-old at a different school before staff intervened.

Meralyn Kirkland, who is Rolle’s grandmother, told the Orlando Sentinel in an interview this week that she hopes her arrest will inspire others to push for Florida to establish a minimum arrest age in the state, which currently lacks such legislation.