Police in Aurora, Colorado, have apologized for putting a group of Black women and children in handcuffs while investigating a report of a stolen car.
A girls day at the nail salon turned tragic when police showed up on Sunday.
Video shows a 17-year-old and a 12-year-old laying on their stomachs with their hands cuffed behind their backs after police approached them at gunpoint.
A 14-year-old girl was seen lying next to a 6-year-old on their stomachs as they cried out in the parking lot, while another woman was taken away in handcuffs.
Eventually, police realized the car they stopped wasn’t stolen and that the entire situation was a mix up that could’ve been avoided.
In a statement Monday, police said that the car had the same license plate number as a motorcycle that was stolen Sunday, but they realized it wasn’t the same car after the kids were cuffed on the ground. The statement said that officers are trained to do a “high-risk stop” when approaching a stolen car and must have their weapons drawn.
But police Chief Vanessa Wilson said officers should use discretion based on each scenario.
“I have called the family to apologize and to offer any help we can provide, especially for the children who may have been traumatized by yesterday’s events. I have reached out to our victim advocates so we can offer age-appropriate therapy that the city will cover,” she said.
Brittney Gilliam, who was the driver of the stopped car, was taking her nieces, sister, and daughter out to the nail salon. She said she and her family were victims of police brutality.
“There’s no excuse why you didn’t handle it a different type of way,” Gilliam said. “You could have even told them ‘step off to the side let me ask your mom or your auntie a few questions so we can get this cleared up.’ There was different ways to handle it.”
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