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11-Year-Old Black Girl Tased by Police for Shoplifting

WBLS Staff
08/09/2018 12:00 AM EDT

Photo Credit: Screenshot/NBC News

As if living while Black hasn’t already hit new lows, an 11-year old black girl was tased by a police officer in Cincinnati, Ohio for shoplifting at a Kroger grocery store.

Officer Kevin Brown, 55, was off-duty and working a security detail at a store location when he accused Donesha Gowdy of shoplifting. When she ignored him and started to walk away, he tased her in the back causing her to fall to the ground, stunned.

“I’m not saying what she did was cool,” said Donna Gowdy, Donesha’s mother, in an interview with NBC News. “But what he did was totally wrong.”

The Cincinnati Police Department Procedure Manual allows the use of tasers on children as young as seven. It also advises that tasers should only be used “for self-defense or to control subjects that are actively resisting arrest.” It explicitly states that fleeing an officer is not a reason to use a taser.

Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac promised the department will reevaluate their policies about using force against juveniles.

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Officer Brown says he tried to turn on his body camera, but it didn’t start recording until after the incident occured. He has been placed on restricted duty.

City Councilman Jeff Pastor addressed the media after the incident, saying, “As a father, I could never imagine a scenario where it is acceptable to tase an 11-year-old child.”

By: Curtis Brodner