Mother says unjust detainment violated civil rights, plans to sue Winter Haven PD

Mother threatens legal action over viral incident

FOX 13's Carla Bayron explains that the mother is demanding that the police officers involved in the incident after they allegedly pointed their guns in the direction of the mother who was being detained.

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. - A mother is calling on the Winter Haven Police Department to investigate the officers for ‘violating her and her daughter’s civil rights'.

This all happened two weeks after she was detained during an incident where her three-year-old child, who was seen with her hands behind her back, went viral on social media.

Mariah Banks speaking on Wednesday.

"All we could do as a family is just lay there with guns pointed at us," said Mariah Banks, the child's mother. Banks is also planning to sue the department.

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On March 4, officers responded to the Legion Tag Agency on Avenue M. NW, where they located Banks and her daughter, who were seen lying on the ground with her hands behind her back.

The backstory:

Police say she was just mimicking her mom, and they took care of her right away once they handcuffed Banks, but Banks says the incident traumatized her child.

"She has PTSD from this," said Banks. "Now I have to take my child at three years old to a doctor, a psychologist, to try to get her brain back and right. That's not okay. My baby doesn't have mental issues."

Police body camera footage showed Banks and her daughter on the ground with their hands behind their backs.

Banks and Black Lives Matter Restoration Inc. are also calling for a Santiago’s Market employee, Jesus Perez, to be charged after they say he pulled out a knife during a fight just outside the store causing Banks’ partner, Godfrey Hercules, to pull out his gun.

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This incident is what triggered the police to detain Banks and Hercules because they say they didn’t know who had the gun after the couple left the scene in the same car.

What they're saying:

In a news conference shortly after the incident, Chief Vance Monroe denied Perez had a knife and said his officers followed proper procedure.

"Monday morning quarterbacking it, I wish we would've [helped the child] a lot more swiftly," said Monroe. "Get up to her as fast as possible so we can get her off the ground, but it's what is known to the officers at the time, which is someone had a firearm.’

Security camera footage of the incident.

What's next:

Banks says she wants the officers fired and the chief to be held accountable.

"At the end of the day, it's just hard to watch my baby be in a little shell because that's not her," Banks said.

Banks says she's also suing Santiago’s Market.

A manager at Santiago’s Market told FOX 13 they had no comment.

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The State Attorney's office has also decided to charge Perez and Hercules with affray. In addition to that charge, Hercules is being charged with Improper Exhibition of a Dangerous Weapon.

The Source: FOX 13's Carla Bayron collected the information in this story.

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