Mother angered over force after daughter placed in handcuffs in Homestead

HOMESTEAD, Pa. — A mother of a 14-year-old girl is speaking out after she said an officer used too much force against her daughter while trying to detain her.

The incident was captured on video and shows a Homestead police officer attempting to handcuff the girl.

“It was just a whole lot of in extra force, an unnecessary situation,” Elizabeth Keefer said.

Keefer said her daughter was with a friend at the Waterfront in Homestead last Thursday, when they were accused of stealing.

“They went to Giant Eagle. They had a couple dollars said they were going to get a drink and then they were accused of stealing so they dumped their belongings out, they didn’t have nothing that they stole so they was let go,” Keefer said.

But that was when the officer showed up, she said.

“He was getting in my daughter’s face, telling her to get on and cussing at him. She wasn’t moving fast enough so he tackled her and was twisting her arms,” she said.

Keefer said she didn’t know what happened until her daughter showed up at her home with the officer.

“He dropped her off and didn’t tell me none of this incident. He just said she’s going to get disorderly conduct and she should be in Schuman and that if she was a boy he would have been beating the life out of her,” Keefer said. “She’s 14, she’s a minor, and he said, ‘I don’t give a damn.’”

The mayor of Homestead said while she doesn’t know the details of what happened, she would like to sit down with Keefer and the officer to hear both sides of the story. Keefer said she had to take her daughter to the hospital and wants to hire a lawyer.

“It says that she has contusions on her wrist because the handcuffs were so tight,” Keefer said. “They just took X-rays of her wrist. But I told her the incident and what happened. What kind of treatment is she receiving? They gave her ibuprofen and told me to follow up with doctor.”

Keefer said she has filed a complaint with a local activist group.

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