WINTER HAVEN, Fla. – Social media outrage erupted over a photo appearing to show Winter Haven police officers holding a mother and her child at gunpoint.
In response, the agency released body camera video of the incident on Thursday.
The video shows two officers rushing toward the woman and child on Tuesday, with at least one officer holding a gun.
“Put your hands out,” one officer is heard saying. “Stay down. Just don’t move.”
According to Winter Haven police, the officers were responding to a 911 call about a disturbance involving a gun.
Reports indicated that a man had gotten into a fight with a store employee in a parking lot before leaving in a red Nissan Altima. The mother and child were passengers in the vehicle, according to police.
Officers handcuffed the woman at the scene.
Police said the child was “calmed and cared for immediately” after the detention and stated that “at no point was the officer’s weapon pointed at the child,” citing multiple camera angles as evidence.
The Florida Department of Children and Families was notified due to the violent nature of the alleged crime committed in the child’s presence.
