Officer is terminated after arresting 6-year-olds

A reserve officer with the Orlando Police Department was terminated Monday after he arrested two 6-year-old children last week without the proper approval, Chief Orlando Rolón said.

The 6-year-olds, one boy and one girl, faced misdemeanor battery charges but will not be prosecuted, Aramis Ayala, the state attorney that serves Orange County, said at a news conference Monday.

The state attorney’s office never intended to prosecute the children, but could not dismiss the girl’s charges until Monday, Ayala said. The boy’s charges will be dismissed once his case number is assigned, she added.

“I refuse to knowingly play any role in the school-to-prison pipeline at any age,” Ayala said. “These very young children are to be protected, nurtured and disciplined in a manner that does not rely on the criminal justice system to do it.”

The authorities have not released the children’s names, but Meralyn Kirkland told local television station WKMG that her 6-year-old granddaughter Kaia had been arrested after having a tantrum in which she kicked a school staff member.

Turner was working as a school resource officer at Lucious and Emma Nixon Academy, a charter school, when he arrested the children in separate incidents Thursday. He was assigned to the Reserve Officer Program, which is made up of retired officers, The Orlando Sentinel reported.

Departmental policy requires officers to get a supervisor’s approval when arresting anyone under the age of 12, which Turner failed to do in both arrests.

Police officials said Sunday that Turner had been suspended immediately after the two arrests, pending an investigation into his actions.

Turner served on the police force for 23 years and retired in June 2018, according to the department.

He was charged with aggravated child abuse in 1998 in connection with his 7-year-old son, The Orlando Sentinel reported. He was suspended pending the result of an investigation, The Sentinel reported, but the outcome of the case was unclear Monday.

In 2016, Turner was reprimanded for using excessive force after stunning a man five times with a Taser during an arrest, the newspaper reported.

Rolón acknowledged Monday that the children’s arrests had damaged the trust between the community and its officers.

“On behalf of myself and the entire Orlando police department, I apologize to the children involved and their families,” he said.