A passenger in a pickup truck stopped by police in Florida’s capital city complied with officers’ demands to exit the vehicle with her hands up – even though she was only two years old.
Video of the incident has gone viral, with nearly 300,000 views on Facebook as of Sunday afternoon.
The video shows police officers in Tallahassee, Fla., pointing their guns at the truck, yelling at its occupants “Put your hands in the air” and “Get out of the truck.”
The toddler then follows those instructions, walking over to police officers with her arms in the air. An officer meets the girl and picks her up.
Tallahassee police later released their own video, combining the original footage with images gathered from officers’ bodycams and a message from the city’s police chief.
Chief Michael DeLeo said officers had been responding to a report of a shoplifting incident in which a gun was seen.
“Unexpectedly, a two-year-old girl climbed out of the truck and imitated her parents by walking to the officers with her hands raised,” he said.
The bodycam footage shows a police officer talking sweetly to the girl as she walked away from the pickup truck.
“Sweetie, you put your hands down. You’re fine. You’re fine. C’mon to Mommy,” the officer said.
DeLeo praised the police conduct shown in the video, noting that officers let the girl’s mother comfort her “even though the mother was a suspect.” Two people have been charged with theft in connection with the incident.
“The video shows the human side of the officers as they interact with the children and one of the officers realizes that he’s not quite sure how to handle a car seat,” DeLeo said.
A pellet gun was allegedly found in the back seat of the vehicle.
