ORLANDO, Fla. – A 13-year-old girl involved in an incident with an Orange County sheriff’s deputy that was captured on cellphone video spoke at a news conference Friday morning to discuss the situation.
Wilmica Edmond, an 8th grader at Westridge Middle School, was involved in an incident outside the school Nov. 7 when Harry Reid, the school resource officer, approached her.
Reid was fired after video showed him yanking Wilmica by her hair and yelling at other students.
Wilmica and her mother, Myrkerlange Joseph, along with their attorneys, spoke at the 10 a.m. news conference.
Wilmica said her neck was injured during the incident and she is having trouble sleeping because of the pain.
The girl’s attorneys say she was treated like an adult criminal during the incident and not a child with no prior criminal history.
The attorneys, Joseph Osborne and Ryan Fletcher of the Osborne & Francis Law Firm, said they are questioning the criteria used by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office to select deputies to work at schools.
In the video, Reid is seen pulling the girl’s head back by her hair and then saying, “This is because you’re silly. You’re all stupid little children, stupid little children."
Orange County Sheriff John Mina said earlier this month that, based on the video, Reid used an inappropriate amount of force on the girl.
“I am very upset by what I saw on that video,” Mina said. “The actions of this deputy appear to violate some of the most important values and expectations that I have set as sheriff. The type of behavior I witnessed on the video and on body-worn camera video will not be tolerated.”
The Sheriff’s Office professional standards section will conduct an investigation and the results will be sent to the State Attorney’s Office for review to determine whether charges will be filed, Mina said.