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The Hagerstown Police Department is under fire after a video surfaced earlier this week that shows a handcuffed girl being pepper sprayed in the back of a police cruiser.
Acording to Dan Dearth of
Herald Mail Media, Hagerstown Police Capt. Tom Langston said Wednesday afternoon the department is still in the process of piecing things together.
"We're reviewing the body camera footage," he said.
Police said in a news release that the girl was charged with disorderly conduct, two counts of second-degreeassault, possession of marijuana and failure to obey a traffic device. The matter was referred to the Department of Juvenile Services.
Langston would not give any further information.
Robin Ficker, the College Park, Md. based attorney who represents the girl's family, said Wednesday that he met with the 15-year-old victim and her mother on Monday morning and was informed
the girl was riding her bike when she was struck by a vehicle Sunday afternoon. The impact, he said, caused the girl to strike her head and lose consciousness for about 30 seconds.Ficker states the details of the incident,
"She was dazed, then she got up and realized she was OK.An ambulance was called and the girl told paramedics that she didn't want to go to the hospital. Police arrived and pulled the girl, who is 5 feet tall and weighs about 105 pounds, off her bike when she tried to ride away.At this point, a police officer lifted the girl's hands above her head from the rear and slammed her face into a wall, and her face hit the windowsill.The girl, who has a white mother and a black father, resisted when officers tried to put her in the back of a cruiser."
The video, which had been shared on Facebook nearly 23,000 times as of Wednesday afternoon, shows the girl kicking at the rear right door of the police car, while it appears her hands are cuffed behind her.
An officer can be heard saying, "put your feet in the car, OK, or you're going to get sprayed."
The girl can be heard asking the officers, who are white, to call for a black police officer named "Zack."
A bystander who is questioning the tactics of police is told by an officer during the video that the medics needed to take a look at the girl, whose parents were not at the scene, because she is a minor and cannot refuse treatment.
"What happens ... when she's like, 'I'm fine,' right, and has a brain injury or something like that, and then she could die later?" the officer asks the bystander. " ... All we want to do is make sure she's OK."
Comment: Mall shooter kills five, manhunt underway in Burlington, Washington State
Update:
Cetin reportedly purchased three guns from his father before driving to Macy's, where ex used to work (she had quit 3 months ago). A former classmate told Daily Mail, 'I didn't think he'd take it as far as mass murder but I knew he was trouble.'
Fox: "The Seattle Times reported that Cetin faced three domestic violence assault charges in both Burlington and Island County, with the victim identified as Cetin's stepfather. The newspaper reports Cetin also was arrested for drunken driving."