John Jefferson
Background: News footage of the 11-year-old child who was detained by Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office deputies (WSTM). Inset: Photo of the actual suspect (Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office).
An 11-year-old girl from upstate New York was confused and crying when police handcuffed her after mistaking her for a car theft suspect wearing a similar outfit.
The unnamed girl from Syracuse was walking home from school and playing with friends in the snow on the afternoon of Jan. 13 when Onondaga County Sheriff’s deputies stopped her and put her in handcuffs. According to a timeline provided by the sheriff’s office following “multiple media requests and social media activity,” they informed the girl that she matched the description of a suspect in a car theft that took place the day before.
During the police stop, the girl’s cousin, who was walking with her, started recording the interaction on her phone. The girl, along with the other children, insisted to police that she was not responsible for the criminal act.
The timeline stated that the stolen Kia was spotted at 1:53 p.m., and all four suspects fled on foot. The 14-year-old driver was apprehended at 2:07 p.m., and descriptions of three other suspects were broadcast over police radio. Two male suspects were stopped nearby at 2:18 p.m.
That left one final female suspect who was caught on a police dashcam. She was wearing a puffy pink coat and camouflage pants — nearly the same exact outfit worn by the 11-year-old girl. Police spotted her walking down the street at 2:38 p.m. and detained her at 2:40 p.m.
When they asked her about the alleged crime, she and her friends denied that they were involved. Police accused them of lying, saying, “It is what it is. If you’re honest, it will make it easy.”
As they questioned the girl, police requested a copy of the photo from the dashcam footage that showed the female suspect. One of the deputies showed the image to the handcuffed girl and asked her, “Girl, you gonna tell me this ain’t you?”
The police also tried to get the other children to leave, telling them to “keep going,” but they insisted on staying at the scene with the girl, who can be heard sobbing while off-camera.
Police eventually started a FaceTime call with the deputy who saw the dashcam footage, and he told the deputies holding the girl that she was not the person they were looking for. The suspect had longer hair, and the girl can be seen sporting two ponytails or buns. Their complexions also did not match, and it was concluded that the coats and pants were similar, but not the same.
The girl was released at 2:47 p.m. The deputies apologized to the girl, saying, “I’m sorry about it, but you matched the description pretty clearly.”
In an interview with WSTM, a local NBC affiliate, the girl’s mother, who did not want to be identified, said that she did not accept the apology offered by the sheriff’s office. She told WSTM, “She no longer wants to walk to and from school anymore. That was the only freedom she had, and it’s now gone.”
As part of their statement following the incident, the sheriff’s office explained that “[h]andcuffing juveniles in this circumstance is lawful, within policy, and common practice in law enforcement,” and that “[h]andcuffing from the start usually prevents a controlled situation from devolving into an uncontrolled situation; ultimately preventing altercations, force, and potential for injury.”
The statement disclosed that the Sheriff’s Office met privately with the girl’s mother and described the conversation as “productive.” They also said that in the future, “it will be OCSO policy to notify a parent or guardian of any juvenile who is detained for criminal investigative purposes, no matter how brief the encounter is.”
The Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office was reached by Law&Crime for an additional comment on the incident. They provided the text from the previously released statement.
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