Florida Police Officer Gets Suspended After Arresting 6-Year-Old Girl

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Source: Nia Noelle / Nia Noelle

Orlando Cop Gets Suspended For Arresting A 6-Year-Old Girl And An 8-Year-Old

A police officer in Florida was facing a ton of backlash online after arresting two children, which included detaining a 6-year-old girl for throwing a tantrum. Now, the officer has been suspended while his department investigates the shocking incident.

According to reports from the New York Post, School Resource Officer Dennis Turner did not obtain the approval from his commanding officer before arresting a 6-year-old and an 8-year-old on Thursday. Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rolon told News 6 that their department’s policy requires the officer to get approval for the arrest. The cop who detained the two children has been reassigned to the Reserve Officer Program and his duties suspended, pending the outcome of an internal investigation.

“The Orlando Police Department has a policy that addresses the arrest of a minor, and our initial finding shows the policy was not followed,” Rolon told the outlet. “As a grandparent of three children less than 11 years old, this is very concerning to me.”

Kaia Rolle, the 6-year-old girl, was cuffed, fingerprinted, and charged with battery after throwing a tantrum and kicking someone at the Lucious and Emma Nixon Academy elementary school, according to her grandmother, Meralyn Kirkland. She added that the child suffers from sleep apnea and was sleep-deprived at the time of her outburst.

“No six-year-old child should be able to tell somebody that they had handcuffs on them and they were riding in the back of a police car and taken to a juvenile center to be fingerprinted, mug shot,” Kirkland said.

Once a supervisor learned about Turner’s actions toward the toddler, the arrest was halted and the child was returned to school before she was processed. However, the 8-year-old–who was also arrested by Turner in a separate incident–was processed at the Juvenile Detention Center and later released to a relative.

People on social media are pointing out Officer Turner’s alleged history of violent behavior.