A Mississippi preteen was detained, arrested, and jailed for peeing in public behind his mom’s car.
During the emotional arrest, the 10-year-old boy, whose name is Quantavious, cried while sitting in the back of a police car and was later taken to jail. He was charged for not only the delinquent act of public urination but because he was left unsupervised.
The child was never handcuffed.
His mom, Latonya Eason, said the whole thing could have been avoided. She thought the police officer was too eager and made a mistake by arresting her son.
Before taking Quantavious away, the officer brought him to his mom, who was visiting her lawyer’s office. She says she was only away from her son for approximately 10 minutes. The officer explained to her what happened and at first, seemed to just want to give a warning to the boy.
“I was like son, why did you do that? He said, ‘Mom, my sister said they don’t have a bathroom there,’ I was like you knew better, you should have come and asked me if they had a restroom. He [the officer] was like since you handled it like a mom, he can get back in the car,” said Eason, according to FOX 13.
But when more officers came, he changed his mind. He decided to take him to be charged. While his mom was filling out his release papers, Quantavious had to be away from her. The mother said a ranking officer insisted that the child be incarcerated for his actions.
“No, him urinating in the parking lot was not right, but at the same time I handled it like a parent and for one officer to tell my baby to get back in the car it was okay and to have the other pull up and take him to jail. Like, no,” Eason said.
“I’m just speechless right now. Why would you arrest a 10-year-old kid?” she asked.
The boy said he was taken to a cell and referred to youth court on a “child in need of service” count.
“I started crying a little bit. They took me down there and got me out of the truck. I didn’t know what was happening,” Quantavious recalled. “I get scared and start shaking and thinking I am going to jail.”
The mother said this is the type of incident that could traumatize a child.
“My baby could get to the point where he won’t want to have an encounter with the police, period,” Eason said.
After everything, the authorities said they were sorry for what happened, admitting they were wrong to arrest him. The Senatobia Police Chief Richard Chandler said he believed the officer’s decision was an “error in judgment.”
“We would like to address a recent incident involving the arrest of a 10-year-old child,’ he said in a statement, according to local outlets.
“Under these circumstances, it was an error in judgment for us to transport the child to the police station since the mother was present at that time as a reasonable alternative,” the chief said.
Adding, “Mistakes like this are a reminder in this profession as to the continual need for training and refreshers on the various topics that we encounter each day.”
