A 12-year-old girl in St. Louis was tasered inside a polic station when allegedly attempting to intervene during her mother’s arrest. Dejamon Baker was shopping with her mother Charlene Bratton a Victoria’s Secret store when a St. Louis County police officer allegedly tackled her mother to the ground, the Daily Beast reports.
Baker stated during an interview with KSDK that she started to cry while at the police station and the officer used a taser gun on her. The St. Louis County Police Department spokesperson denied Dejamon Baker’s taser account, maintaining instead that the 12-year-old girl attempted to get “physically involved” in the arrest encounter.
“I hed fell on the floor and couldn’t control myself I just kept on shaking. This one goes in my chest. It was stuck in there so she had to keep on pulling trying to pull it out,” Dejamon Baker told KSDK News. Baker told KSDK News. The preteen girl has taser wounds on her chest and stomach.
News1 reports the St. Louis police officer went into the Victoria’s Secret store to arrest Charlene Bratton because the woman had arrest warrants for unpaid parking tickets. Bratton was allegedly shopping with her daughter Dejamon Baker and other family members and walking to the checkout counter when arrested.
“He said, put your hands behind your back. I said for what. Next thing you know he tackled me down on the ground,” Bratton stated during a KSDK interview. “He should have had enough control to tell her to get back instead of pulling out his gun, I guess he was nervous or whatever and tasing people.”
Dejamon Baker believes the police officer may have gotten mad because she was crying and claims he simply took out his taser gun and tased her at the police station. According to KSDK Charlene Bratton is planning on reporting the incident to St. Louuis Internal Affairs Division for investigation.
