Mother says Winter Haven police should be held accountable for toddler's trauma in viral arrest video

Yahoo

20-03-2025

Black Lives Matters Restoration Polk Inc. is demanding greater accountability from Winter Haven Police Department and Santiago's Market for their actions leading up to a 3-year-old girl lying face down on the ground with her hands behind her back.
Carl Soto, of BLM Restoration Polk, and Winter Haven resident Mariah Banks, mother of the 3-year-old girl shown lying down in a video that quickly went viral on social media, held a news conference Wednesday in front of the police department. Soto has called for the termination of all police officers involved in the March 4 incident, the possible resignation of Chief Vance Monroe and a U.S. Department of Justice investigation. They are pushing for criminal charges to be filed against Santiago's employees for their roles in the altercation.
"We're living in a day and time where law enforcement cannot accept accountability for their own actions," Soto said.
About 1:30 p.m. March 4, Winter Haven police received several 911 calls about a fight outside Santiago's Market, 898 Havendale Blvd. N.W. Banks said a Santiago's employee, 46-year-old Jesus Crespo Perez, accused her of urinating in public on the businesses' outdoor patio. She said she attempted to explain she was pouring water from a bottle over her hands to rinse off her hands. The verbal argument quickly escalated.
Banks said Crespo Perez, who works as a butcher for Santiago's, displayed a knife in a threatening manner escalating into a physical fight.
Monroe shared a roughly 5-minute, 30-second security video obtained from Santiago's Market at a March 6 news conference. When asked about Crespo Perez displaying a knife, Monroe said he did not see a knife in the video.
Banks said Wednesday afternoon she was first threatened with a knife by Crespo Perez while she was still on the market's patio with her daughter, under shade umbrellas. She said the knife is obscured from view in the security camera footage.
Godfrey Hercules II, 29, the father of Banks' 3-year-old daughter, displayed his legally owned firearm in self-defense, according to Soto, as permitted under Florida's Stand Your Ground Law. Under the state statute, individuals are not required to retreat before pulling a gun in self-defense if they perceive a threat to their life.
"Video evidence also reveals multiple employees of Santiago's attempted to hold Mr. Perez back when they realized he was the aggressor," Soto said. "He was still able to break loose, take off his shirt and lunge in the direction of Mrs. Banks and Mr. Hercules on four occasions. On one occasion he blocks their vehicle from leaving and you can see him hitting the trunk of the car taunting the father to exit the vehicle.
Crespo Perez and Hercules were each charged by State Attorney Brian Haas with one misdemeanor count of affray filed March 14. If found guilty, the maximum penalty is one year in prison and up to $1,000 fine.
Only Hercules faces an additional misdemeanor charge of improper exhibition of a firearm. Soto said Hercules' lawyer will file a motion to dismiss the charge immediately.
"We call it malicious prosecution," Soto said.
Banks and Soto said they want additional charges filed against Crespo Perez for unlawfully threatening an individual with a deadly weapon.
Soto is calling for the police department and Haas to file charges against one of the 911 callers, whom they claim provided misinformation.
Monroe said a Santiago's employee who called 911 described a Black man with a firearm in a manner that caused the dispatcher to code the call as an "armed robbery."
Video footage obtained from Santiago's Market and publicly released by the police department clearly shows Crespo Perez was the aggressor in the incident, not Hercules, Soto said.
"The 911 caller that willfully provided false information to 911 dispatch committed a misdemeanor. She needs to be criminally charged," Soto said. "We're demanding the State Attorney's Office do their job."
Because of Crespo Perez's actions and the 911 call, Banks is working with an attorney to potentially consider filing a lawsuit against Santiago's Market.
Banks is working with attorney Mauricio Padilla of the Miami-based Padilla Law Group, to consider a potential lawsuit against the Winter Haven Police Department for trauma to her 3-year-old daughter and violations of her Fourth Amendment rights.
"I don't think anybody understands what I'm dealing with as a mother trying to keep my baby up, make her feel okay and safe," she said. "In that moment, I was not able to make her feel safe. Her father couldn't make her feel safe. All we could do as a family is lay there with guns pointed at us, police yelling, screaming and cussing."
Banks said her daughter is dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder from witnessing her mother's detainment. She said the girl screams, cries and begins clutching at her mother when she hears sirens go off at a fire station near their home.
In the 911 calls of the fight, Banks was never accused of exhibiting violent behavior. She was never reported to be in possession of the firearm, Soto said, merely with Hercules and a child.
"A 3-year-old child was ordered to the ground face down and she put her hands behind her back," Soto said. "A 3-year-old child down while officers had their guns pointed in her direction, even though they knew according to the 911 call that Ms. Banks was not the one who had the weapon. She was not the one who attacked or participated in the assault."
Body cam footage show officers pointed their guns at Banks as they came around the side of a car, before realizing she was accompanied by her daughter.
"I want the officers that were standing in front of my daughter holding that gun, I need them to have some kind of legal actions done," she said Wednesday. "It was multiple police out there with their weapons pointed at us."
Banks said there was an officer standing off to the side, not immediately involved, who she thinks should have holstered his firearm and helped her child off the ground. The officer turned away instead, she said, moving toward the area where another team of officers was handcuffing Hercules. Body cam footage released confirms one officer ran toward Banks and her daughter, before turning toward the second scene where Hercules was being detained.
"My daughter was not helped up by a police officer. She got up off the ground on her own, holding onto me getting up off the ground," Banks said.
Winter Haven police did not immediately comment about the news conference on Wednesday.
Monroe has publicly praised his officers for acting within policy and doing their best to immediately help the girl given the circumstances. The police chief has said the situation needs to be reviewed to determine whether additional training is needed or where the police department could alter its protocols to do better.
Banks was brought to a cruiser where she was detained for over an hour, Soto said, and was not informed why she was begin detained despite repeated requests for information.
"That's a blatant violation of her Fourth Amendment rights," Soto said. "They had her detained for an hour because they were fishing for something to charge her with."
Padilla said he is representing Banks, reviewing the documents but no lawsuits have been filed as of Wednesday afternoon.
Soto and Banks said they have repeatedly requested to meet with the WHPD chief, but the replies have been "inadequate" so they plan on escalating their complaints to city and state officials. A complaint has been sent to the U.S. Department of Justice by certified mail.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Winter Haven mom demands officers be fired over viral arrest image