Grand Rapids, Michigan Police Chief David Rahinsky says officers who briefly handcuffed a 12-year-old black child while investigating a report of a shooting followed their training.
“Officers showed compassion, they showed good judgment, the individual, the 12-year-old who was handcuffed was handcuffed for a minute and change, the tone of the officer, I think was appropriate. Officers did as they were trained to do, which puts themselves and the individuals they are dealing with in the best possible position in terms of officer safety and community safety,” Rahinsky said Tuesday, after playing footage of the October 9 incident from an officer’s body camera.
But Kent County Commissioner Robert S. Womack disagrees.
“Our chief has made a terrible mistake that we are going to agree to this as normal behavior,” Womack stated in a Tuesday Facebook post announcing his plans to hold a protest march.
During the Tuesday news conference, Rahinsky played a recording of the 911 call that led to the response. GRPD altered the caller’s voice to protect her privacy.
“Somebody shot one of my neighbors,” the panicked caller tells the dispatcher before ordering relatives to back away from a window.
The caller said from a second-floor window, her adult daughter saw a woman beg someone not to shoot her before being shot three times.
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