Tallahassee Police have responded to a video of an arrest that has gone viral on social media, showing a toddler walking with her arms raised while officers have their guns drawn.
It happened Thursday around 4:30 p.m. near the parking lot of the Bealls Store on Capital Circle Northeast.
The department says it got a call about shoplifters inside of the store. Officers say an employee reported they saw one of the men with a gun.
Officers arrived on the scene quickly and conducted a stop on the suspects’ pickup truck.
A local woman and her daughter were recording on a cell phone.
In the video, you can hear them saying, “She’s trying to get out. Oh, my God. She’s trying to get out but she can’t because she’s little. Ooh, she’s holding her hands up. Oh, my God.”
They couldn’t believe it as a toddler climbs out of the pickup truck and walks toward police with her hands in the air.
TPD spokesperson Damon Miller says officers approached the situation according to the information that they’d gotten about the suspects being armed.
“It’s just for safety because we don’t know who else is inside the vehicle. If you look at the video, there are multiple that actually did come outside of the vehicle. It’s very important that our awareness is very heightened on a situation like that,” Officer Miller said.
Officers say no one was hurt during the ordeal.
The two people arrested were 34-year-old Chad Bom and 38-year-old James McMullen. They are charged with petty theft.
Police a pellet gun was found in the back seat of the vehicle.
Officer Miller says TPD is reviewing the video that was posted to social media, as well as the officers’ body cam video.
On Friday night, the Tallahassee Police Department released a video on Facebook with a message from Chief Michael DeLeo, as well as body camera footage from the incident.
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
16 Responses
No amount of thievery [neither petty nor large] is ever worth a human life, hence yet once again, the police behavior is despicable and reprehensible.
Oh please and a 2 yr old.knows to walk with hands up??
147, you are over reacting….
147
Pray enlighten me,
What did the cops do wrong exactly?
Should they have not been on the alert?
Is only the lives of petty thieves valuable but cops should allow themselves to get killed?
What’s the big deal? So they pointed a gun at a two year old.
She is living with thieves, I’m sure it’s not the first time she saw a gun. And if it is she would not know what it was so she wouldn’t be afraid.
Please state clearly what exactly you find wrong with the cops behavior here
Am I the only one who hears the cop telling her Youre ok go to mommy, he moves aside and says youre ok go to mommy. I don’t see the guns trained on the kid. What else should they have done?
More fake news. The officer turned away as soon is he saw her.
147,
Did you bother watching the videos before posting your thoughts on the world wide web? I think they acted in an extremely professional and compassionate manner. They were confronted with a very unusual situation. What is truly sad is that parents of these two little kids had to come to shoplifting, probably just to get by, and will likely not be there for their children now as I assume they will serve time? Very sad all around.
Questions of guns pointed at two-year-olds aside, i am scratching my head as to why a little two-year-old was found in a vehicle of armed thieves and not taken from their custody for her protection immediately!
I watched the video posted by the women in the car commenting about the little baby who is trying to get out of the truck, and at first she couldn’t but then she did with her hands up. So it’s interesting that everyone is spinning the story, with the women themselves making comments that clearly contradict all the fuss.
One woman says, “Look he’s pointing a gun at the baby, wow, really. Ooh she quick. Well at least she listening . Look! They still holding the gun at the baby.” The other one says, “Nuh-uh they have the gun at the car.” The first one says, “There nobody else in there, tho.. ”
The older one says, “Yes, Is!”
After chatting about if they have the baby now, and “OMG she so small,” the younger lady yells, “Oh, I see someone, I see someone in there.” Meaning the truck. She is confirming for all confused viewers where the officers were aiming their guns. They also yell in annoyance at the end how the passing trucks keep blocking their view, which right there destroys plaintiff testimony if they rely on this video.
The little girl coming out by herself onto a busy parking lot with her hands up. Really. Now who put her up to that, do you think?
147 and flyer have not read the article or they just have appointment of veiw that does not include reality!
a point of veiw……..
not appointment
Fake news and people quick to judge. Police never aimed a gun at kids. Also is illegal for that 3 year old to be in a booster seat. She needs to be in a car seat with its own separate seatbelt. The fact that thegirl got office the booster without help shows you why car seat is needed. They need to be charged with cold endangerment.
Thats Baby face Brenda ! She’s really a midget gangster dressed like a baby.
147
I sincerely hope that you should need the police and shall not show.
No one has pointed out yet a blatant point as to the ‘reliability’ of these ‘viral’ videos.
The Woman (narrator) in the video states: “they telling her to turn around” (referring to baby) while in the other video (presumably a body cam) you hear very clearly “come here sweetie”, ” you can put your hands down” etc.
If not for the second video we would ALL KNOW [millions world over] that ‘those horrible police told a baby to turn around’ because the woman in the video said so.
The police acted amazing. Very wrongly headed article. Police were very nice to kids and didn’t scare them. No gun was pointed at the kid the gun was pointed at the car