Miami cop handcuffed 5-year-old boy to teach him a lesson
WYNWOOD, Fla. -- A 5-year-old boy was handcuffed by a cop at school for fighting with another child, reports CBS Miami.
Kindergartner Jose Feliciano told his dad a police officer pulled his ear and slapped handcuffs on him after he was called into the office at Eneida Hartner Elementary School in Wynwood in February, reports the station, and a Miami Police Internal Affairs investigation found the allegations are true.
According to the report, Jose was caught "biting another student, was cursing at [the teacher]... and had busted that student's lip in the past."
The teacher told investigators that Jose showed "no remorse" so she took him to the counselor's office, reports the station, where Paul Gourrier, a 22-year police veteran who was on campus for an unrelated incident, decided to teach the child a lesson.
According to CBS Miami, Gourrier "admitted to handcuffing the student to demonstrate the consequences for his actions and to 'tugging' on his ear to get his attention," the Internal Affairs report documents. He then "pointed to his marked police car and explained that if that behavior continued he could be asked to take [Jose] to jail."
"I'm worried and furious," said the boy's mother, Mari Bonilla, in Spanish, reports the station. "My son is traumatized."
Jose's father said the day the incident happened he was asked to pick his son up from school for misbehaving, but was never told about the run-in with officer Gourrier, says the station. He only found out later that day when Jose told him about what happened.
Miami-Dade County Public Schools released the following statement:
"The officer in question is not a Miami-Dade Schools police officer. Our officers are specially trained to deal with children using abundant care and compassion. At Miami-Dade County Public Schools, we do not condone this action on the part of other law enforcement entities, even if was done as part of a demonstration to teach a lesson."
The City of Miami Police Department suspended Officer Gourrier for two days without pay in June, and ordered him to undergo professionalism and ethics training, reports CBS Miami. During an interview with investigators, Gourrier reportedly said if he had to do it all over again, he would not have handcuffed the child.