KEW WEST, Fla. – The Key West Police Department is in hot water after a video surfaced of an arrest at an elementary school, News 6 partner WPLG reports.
Police body cam footage shows an officer trying to handcuff a crying 8-year-old boy reportedly with special needs who attends Gerald Adams Elementary School in Key West.
Recommended Videos
The handcuffs are too big for the 3-foot-5, 64-pound boy, but he is taken into custody none the less.
The child was accused, according to the arrest report, of punching a teacher in the chest after being reprimanded for not sitting correctly in the cafeteria during lunch.
Unbelievable!! @KWPOLICE used “scared straight” tactics on 8yo boy with special needs. He's 3.5 ft tall and 64 lbs, but they thought it was appropriate to handcuff and transport him to an adult prison for processing!! He was so small the cuffs fell off his wrists! pic.twitter.com/iSTlXdKas6
— Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) August 10, 2020
Officers charged the 8-year-old with felony battery.
The video is from December 2018, but it blew up on social media Monday after it was posted on the Twitter and Instagram account of Tallahassee civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump.
Crump is now representing the boy's mother in a federal lawsuit to be filed this week against the Key West Police Department and the Monroe County School District.
In a statement to the Miami Herald, the Key West police chief said that his officers did not do anything wrong.
The Monroe County School District will not comment on the case because of the possible legal action.
Crump is expected to hold a news conference on Tuesday.