Bodycam footage shows Maplewood PD handcuff, detain four children
Body-worn camera footage released Wednesday shows Maplewood Police handcuffing four children Monday night while investigating a report of gunfire in the area.
The children, ages 10-16, were made to sit with handcuffs in the back of squad cars before being cleared of wrongdoing shortly after parents arrived at the scene.
Throughout the roughly 46-minute encounter, the children can be heard repeatedly telling officers they have no weapon and haven't been near the lot where shots were reportedly fired.
“I don't got no gun, I don't got no gun, officer,” one child says, patting his clothes.
Moments later, another child in the video offers to show officers a receipt for a recent food purchase at McDonald’s, where the children had just left before being stopped.
After speaking with the children for about 20 minutes, officers decide to place them in handcuffs and make them wait in the back of squad cars while other officers search the area and review additional surveillance.
The officers can also be seen on the footage debating whether or not to perform another pat-down in search of a firearm.
"I wouldn't doubt that it's ditched somewhere behind all these buildings here," one officer comments.
Later, with parents on-scene and confronting officers, the children are ultimately released. Police say the children were free to go after further review of surveillance footage cleared them as suspects.
You can watch the footage here. Warning: It contains offensive language.
The aftermath
The City of Maplewood and Maplewood Police Department have said officers acted professionally while investigating a substantiated report of gunfire in the area.
Gunshots and four unidentified suspects were captured on surveillance footage Monday, according to Maplewood Communications Manager Joe Sheeran. Officers also recovered a spent shell casing in the area.
Sheeran said the the officers were acting with "due diligence" when detaining the children.
However, Toshira Garraway, whose 16-year-old son was detained along with his three friends, is asking police to apologize for an incident that inflicted trauma on the families involved.
Bring Me The News' full interview with Sheeran and Garraway can be found here.
