There has been public outcry and criticism towards officers during the encounter after the footage went viral
Body camera footage captured the moment when a 3-year-old girl put her hands behind her back, copying her mother during a police situation in Winter Haven.
There has been public outcry and criticism towards officers during the encounter after the footage went viral.
Watch NBC6 free wherever you are
WATCH HERE“The optics are bad,” said Winter Haven Police Chief Vance Monroe. “We’re not going to skip around it. The optics of this incident are bad. They’re terrible, and I truly wish that this child was not exposed to this.”
According to police, on March 4, officers arrived at a local shopping center after receiving reports of a man who got into a fight with one of the store’s employees in the parking lot.
Get local news you need to know to start your day with NBC 6's News Headlines newsletter.
SIGN UP
Surveillance video captured the suspect and the employee in a fighting stance in the parking lot.
Officers said the suspect left the property and was heading south on Highway 17 in a red Nissan Altima and the child and her mother were passengers in the vehicle.
Mariah Banks identified herself as the woman in the video and the mother of the child.
As police continued their investigation, officers found the suspect's vehicle at the American Legion on Avenue M. Northwest.
Police said when they arrived, the suspect, Banks and her daughter were outside the vehicle.
Officers were able to find the suspect but Banks was ordered to get down on the ground.
Body camera footage shows Banks and her daughter face down on the ground as they had their hands behind their backs.
Police said Banks' daughter was "mirroring" her.
"I honestly feel like she was following their directions,” Banks said. “When they yelled, ‘get down,’ everyone had no option but to get down because they had guns pointed at us.”
During a press conference, Monroe said that at no point during the incident did an officer point a weapon at the child.
The footage also showed the girl's parents being handcuffed in front of her as she was crying. She was heard saying “please don’t kill us” and begged officers not take her to to jail.
“That’s not OK for a 3-year-old to have PTSD because a cop could’ve handled something totally different,” she said.
After the encounter, police said no one was taken to jail but a complaint affidavit was filled for the man who was seen with a gun and was fighting in public.
Monroe said officers followed Winter Haven Police Department policies during the incident.
