11-year-old girl held at gunpoint, cuffed by GRPD
By Heather Walker
WOOD TV
December 11, 2017
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The Grand Rapids Police Department has opened an internal investigation after an 11-year-old girl was held at gunpoint by officers, handcuffed and then thrown in the back of a cruiser.
“It made me feel scared and it made me feel like I did something wrong,” 11-year-old Honestie Hodges told 24 Hour News 8 Monday.
The incident happened Wednesday. Honestie, a student at Stocking Elementary, was leaving though the back door of her home on Turner Avenue near Richmond Street NW to go to the store when she was confronted by officers.
“They had police cars over on this street, they had police cars all along the ally,” Honestie said.
Honestie and her mother said officers ordered the girl to walk backwards with her hands up, then put her in cuffs, patted her down and put her in the back of a cop car.
“The whole time they are telling her to come down, I’m telling them, ‘She’s 11 years old. That’s my daughter. Don’t cuff her,'” Honestie’s mom Whitney Hodges said.
GRPD admits officers cuffed Honestie anyway, along with detaining two women who had exited the house with her.
“When my mom was walking past, I was putting my hands through the little bars, banging on the windows, screaming, ‘Please don’t let them take me,'” Honestie remembered.
GRPD was at the home looking for the girl’s aunt, Carrie Manning, who was wanted for allegedly stabbing her little sister at a home a few blocks away and was believed to be armed with a knife. Manning is a 40-year-old white woman.
In a Monday night release, GRPD said officers detained the women and Honestie because it had not yet been determined that none of them were the suspect and that they weren’t armed.
Officers got permission to search the house. GRPD said the suspect wasn’t there, but she was later found at another home and arrested on charges of assault with intent to murder and resisting and obstructing arrest, as well as an outstanding warrant. The person she was accused of stabbing was treated at the hospital and released.
But Honestie is still scared.
“I’m afraid to open or go near my back door,” Honestie said. “Because of what happened.”
When asked what she would want to tell police, she replied, “I’m just wondering why they did that to me.”
GRPD says an internal investigation was launched the day after the incident, sparked by a complaint from Honestie’s family. The agency said it would not comment further until that investigation is complete.
“I wanted to be a detective or police officer, but now I don’t want anything to do with those kind of things,” Honestie said.
EDITOR’S NOTE: It always looks bad when cops handcuff a little child.
1 comment:
14 year old kids kill people all the time, often because they think they will get a slap on the wrist from juvenile authorities. They are often correct.
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