Body camera footage of Maryland police officers detaining a 5-year-old boy during a January 2020 incident has sparked outrage after the Montgomery County Police Department released the 51-minute video on Friday after months of requests from a local official.
During the encounter, two officers shouted at the boy, calling him a “little beast” and telling him, “I hope your mama let me beat you.” The boy’s mother filed a lawsuit earlier this year. The suit identifies the officers as Dionne Holliday and Kevin Christmon, both of whom are Black. The litigation is pending.
Montgomery County Councilman Will Jawando, who said he’s been requesting that the video be released for three months, described the ordeal as a “nightmare.”
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“It made me sick. We all saw a little boy be mocked, degraded, put in the back of a police car, screamed at from the top of an adult police officer’s lungs, inches from his face. This is violence,” Jawando said.
The incident began on Jan. 14, 2020, when Montgomery County, Police were contacted because a 5-year-old boy had wandered off the grounds of East Silver Spring Elementary School.
The footage begins as police arrive in a neighborhood where the boy is leaning up against a parked car.
As Officer Kevin Christmon led the boy away from the car by the arm and toward a squad car the child began to cry.
“Cut it out,” Christmon said. “Get in the car or we’re gonna have problems. I don’t want to hear it. You better stop.”
A female administrator told the officer the boy was “unofficially” known to be “special needs.”
Officer Dionne Holliday spoke to the child as he sat in the back seat of the squad car. “Does your mama spank you? ‘Cause she is today,” she said. “I’m gonna ask her if I can do it.”
Once inside the school building, Holliday remarked, “Shut that noise up now!” as the boy cried. “I hope your mama let me beat you.”
Holliday then moved inches from the boy’s face and screamed “Ahhhh” five times. The two officers then spoke to each other about the boy’s behavior at school while in earshot of the boy. Christmon called the boy “a violent little thing.”
Source: ‘Shut That Noise Up!’: Body Camera Footage Shows Maryland Police Handcuff, Scream at 5-Year-Old Boy
