‘Not OK’: Florida mother speaks out after police incident involving 3-year-old

Winter Haven police faced an fiery backlash Wednesday after pictures emerged on social media of an arrest that included a young girl lying face down on the ground with her hands behind her back, an officer facing the girl and her mother with his firearm drawn.

Shortly after 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, as the picture exploded quickly on social platforms, the department released body camera footage of the arrest and said that the young girl, seemingly less than 5 years old, was mimicking her mother as police ordered the woman to the ground. The mother and daughter were in a car with a man police were seeking in connection with a disturbance involving a firearm.

In a news release accompanying the video, police said the officers’ weapons were drawn out of caution because of the likelihood of a firearm, and “at no point was the officer’s weapon pointed at the child as confirmed by multiple cameras.”

According to the news release, the incident happened Tuesday when officers received a report of a disturbance involving a firearm at Santiago’s Market, 898 Havendale Blvd. NW.

Godfrey Hercules II, 29, was in an altercation with a store employee in the parking lot and was observed with a gun, police said. Hercules left the parking lot heading south on U.S. 17. Police put out a be-on-the-lookout alert for a red Nissan Altima with Hercules as the driver, a female passenger and a small child passenger.

Officers found the vehicle at the American Legion, 300 Ave. M N.W., Winter Haven, police said, and Hercules, the woman and the child had gotten out of the car. Police said Hercules was found on the side of the building and was quickly apprehended.

The woman, Mariah Banks, 27, was ordered to the ground, and she immediately complied, police said, and the young child mimicked the mother’s actions. Banks was handcuffed, as shown in the video. Police said a Diamondback 9mm semiautomatic pistol was found in the vehicle.

“Officers responded with an appropriate level of caution with the understanding there was a weapon involved seeking to resolve the situation,” the department said in the release. “When approaching Hercules and Banks, officers could not have known who was in possession of the firearm. As soon as the officer approaching Banks became aware of the presence of the child, he immediately pointed his firearm towards the ground at a low-ready position.

“At no point was the officer’s weapon pointed at the child as confirmed by multiple cameras,” the release said.

Backlash on social media to the image of the girl lying on the ground next to her mother was intense. Much of it centered on the belief that the officer was pointing his gun at the child or that the child had been handcuffed.

A Facebook post for Black Lives Matter Restoration Polk Inc., said, “Winter Haven Police got 24 hours to apologize for allowing that little girl to be on the ground or it’s going down about that black child.”

“Y’all got 24 hours to issue a public apology to that little girl and the family. And I want to know why she’s on the ground, why’s she’s in handcuffs, if she’s in handcuffs and why she got her hands behind her back. Where the training at, who didn’t pick that baby up off that ground.”

A user on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, said, “Winter Haven Police Department with German Shepard, handcuffs toddler and mother in Florida.”