8-year-old’s arrest at school on body cam video; lawsuit eyed

Family plans action over 2018 Key West incident

The family of an 8-year-old boy plans to sue over his 2018 arrest following an incident at his school, according to news reports.

Key West police officers tried to handcuff the child before leading him to their patrol car, but the boy’s wrists were too thin.

Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who is representing the family, on Sunday night tweeted a body cam video of the December 2018 arrest.

“Crump —who is also representing the families of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor —and civil rights attorney Devon Jacob, will file a federal lawsuit against the officers, school officials, the city of Key West and the Monroe County School District,” the attorney said in a statement, according to HuffPost.

The boy was accused of punching a teacher amid a dispute over how he was sitting in the Gerald Adams Elementary School cafeteria, according to an arrest report obtained by The Miami Herald.

Officers arrested him on a felony battery charge and booked him at the juvenile justice facility in Key West, the Herald reported.

In the video, an officer is heard telling the child, “You understand this is very serious, OK? I hate that you had to put me into this position to do this.”

A similar incident in Orlando in September sparked national outrage when 6-year-old girl Kaia Rolle was arrested by Orlando police officers at Lucious & Emma Nixon Academy.

One of the officers in that case, Dennis Turner, told the girl, “I don’t want to do this, I have to,” according to an account by officer Sergio Ramos.

Kaia was booked into and had her mugshot taken at the Juvenile Assessment Center.