Video released Tuesday shows a police officer in Cincinnati defending himself for using a stun gun on an 11-year-old accused of shoplifting and telling her “this is why there aren’t any grocery stores in the black community.”
Police say the officer, Kevin Brown, broke several Cincinnati Police Department rules when he used the weapon on the girl last month, Cincinnati ABC affiliate WCPO reported.
In the video, Brown can be heard telling the girl that “the last thing I want to do is taze you like that.”
{mosads}“When I say stop, you stop. You know you’re caught. Just stop,” he said. “That hurt my heart to do that to you. Then I got to listen to all these idiots out here in the parking lot tell me how I was wrong for tazing you. You broke the law. And you fled as I tried to apprehend you.”
“You know what, sweetheart, this is why there aren’t any grocery stores in the black community, because of all this going on,” he adds in the video.
WCPO reported that the girl is accused of taking $53.81 worth of items from the grocery store, including candy, beef jerky and infant clothing.
Police say Brown violated several of the department’s policies, including using the stun gun without first warning the girl and expressing prejudice by making the comment about the grocery stores in the black community. Police also said the incident didn’t warrant the use of force given the severity of the crime and the threat the girl posed.
“Whenever an incident like this happens, we must take the opportunity to make sure we are staying current with what’s happening nationally,” Police Chief Eliot Isaac said Tuesday, per WCPO. “There may be some areas in which we can tweak, but I believe we do have a very solid policy around our use of force.”
Brown, who was on restricted duty while the investigation was being conducted, now faces a pre-disciplinary hearing, according to WCPO.