GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Grand Rapids’ police chief is clarifying statements he made about an incident involving officers handcuffing an 11-year-old girl and is releasing more video from that night.
On Friday, Chief David Rahinsky discussed an incident in which Honestie Hodges was detained and thrown into the back of a squad car on Dec. 6 while police were responding to an attempted homicide call.
Tuesday, Rahinsky released a small clip of body cam video from the incident and said he was “nauseated” by what he saw in it. But some officers spoke out that they felt their boss did not have their backs.
The chief said Friday that extended video gives more perspective on what happened when the officers realized what going on amid the chaos, and clarified his position on what happened.
“What I need to make sure I do is be real clear when I make statements that what I see there is a lot of good police work, what I see is a heart for service that goes out every day. But I also see an 11-year-old girl in distress. What I asked of myself as the chief of this department, ’How can I confirm 99 percent of good police work I see there but maybe end up with a result that’s slightly different that doesn’t put a young girl through what she went through?’ So that’s the challenge,” he said.