HAGERSTOWN, Md. – Police in Hagerstown, Maryland, say officers pepper-sprayed a 15-year-old girl and charged her with assault and disorderly conduct after her bicycle hit a car.
Capt. Paul Kifer said Wednesday that the white officers who arrested the mixed-race girl acted properly. He says she became assaultive as officers tried to get her into a cruiser for a ride to a police station on Sunday.
Kifer says police needed to question her about the accident and find a parent to sign off on her refusal to receive medical treatment.
The girl's lawyer, Robin Ficker, says she was mistreated and that she should have been taken to a hospital. He says she has sprained muscles, and sore wrists where she was handcuffed.
Ficker says the girl has a white mother and black father.
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