Colorado police pepper-spray misbehaving boy, 8

[jimmy olsen]

Kid sounds like he has some serious mental problems.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_child_pepper_sprayed

Colorado police pepper-spray misbehaving boy, 8

By SHEILA V KUMAR, Associated Press – Thu Apr 7, 10:45 am ET

DENVER – The staff at the Colorado elementary school said no one could calm 8-year-old Aidan Elliott.

He had just thrown a TV and chairs and was now trying to use a cart to bust through a door to an office where teachers had taken some young students for safety.

They called the police.

The officers found him with a foot-long piece of wood trim with a knife-like point in one hand and a cardboard box in the other.

"Come get me, f-----," he said.

When they couldn't calm him down, one squirted Aidan with pepper spray. He blocked it with the cardboard box.

A second squirt hit the youngster in the side of the head, and down he went, according to an account of the Feb. 22 standoff in a police report first obtained by KUSA-TV.

Aidan and his mother went on national talk shows on Wednesday to say using pepper spray on an unruly 8-year-old was too much.

Police in the Denver suburb of Lakewood and officials at Glennon Heights Elementary in Lakewood say it could've been worse.

"Had the officers chosen to be hands-on with him, the potential for him getting some type of injury and, maybe even officers, would have been much higher," police spokesman Steve Davis said.

"It was the best choice made," he said.

It wasn't the first time officers had been called to pacify Aidan, Davis said. They'd been able to talk him down in two other incidents.

Mandy Elliott said she wished authorities had chosen to talk him down in the latest incident. She also wanted police to get special training in dealing with children. Aidan has since transferred to another school.

When asked about the pepper spray and what he did, Aidan said: "I kind of deserved it."

Aidan started acting up while on the bus to school, the police report said. He began screaming and then continued after breakfast while throwing chairs at his teachers.

"He was being very aggressive, very violent," said Melissa Reeves, the school district spokeswoman.

There were eight students with Aidan in the classroom, Reeves said, and teachers removed them after he became violent. They barricaded themselves in an office, as he tried to bust in, Davis said.

Aidan was swearing and shouting expletives at his teachers and threatening them, Davis said. He taunted police when they arrived.

"I wanted to make something sharp, like if they came out, `cause I was so mad at them," the boy said on NBC's "Today" show. "I was going to try to whack them with it."

After hitting him with the second squirt, officers took Aidan outside for some fresh air to help dissipate the spray. Paramedics were treating his red, irritated face with cool water when his mother arrived.

According to the report, Mandy Elliott asked her son what he did.

When he told her he had been hit with pepper spray, she is quoted as saying, "Well, you probably deserved it."

[dps]

The should have tazed him.  Or just shot him.

Actually, since both the kid and the mom said that he probably deserved it, I don't see why they'd go talk shows to complain about it.  Oh, wait, those shows pay you to appear, don't they?  And telling us what we already know--that the kid deserved it--isn't a story, is it?

[jimmy olsen]

The should have tazed him.  Or just shot him.

He's 8.

[katmai]

I wish we could pepper spray Tim.

[lustindarkness]

No one tried to tackle him?

[Scipio]

You know, when you pull a pointed stick, you put yourself at an immediate disadvantage....

[Slargos]

You know, when you pull a pointed stick, you put yourself at an immediate disadvantage....

Oh, I think he put himself at a disadvantage when he provoked a physical response from a gaggle of pigs weighing in at probably 20 times himself. The stick had nothing to do with it. 

Brave kid, though.

I always find these types of stories intriguing. What did America do wrong that you have to pepper-spray 8 year olds?

[Ed Anger]

I wish we could pepper spray Tim.

Neil has the squirt bottle. HE JUST WON'T SPRAY HIM.

[Martinus]

What did America do wrong that you have to pepper-spray 8 year olds?

He just wouldn't fucking listen.

[Zeus]

The police shoulda used Bear Mace. 

[Norgy]

Mandatory abortions can save America.

[Slargos]

What did America do wrong that you have to pepper-spray 8 year olds?

He just wouldn't fucking listen.

Oh I don't doubt that they felt this was necessary, I'm talking about how this society got to the point where 8 year olds are pepper sprayed in general, not this particular 8 year old.

I've never heard of anything like it in Sweden.

We do get the odd 14 year old moped hooligan run down by a cop car while trying to evade the police but there's a whole lot of difference between an 8 year old and a 14 year old.

[Ed Anger]

I wonder if Squeelus is wondering where this cop was when he was being chased down by a gang of 5th graders?

[garbon]

What did America do wrong that you have to pepper-spray 8 year olds?

Cops probably would have been sued if they caused any injuries while trying to manhandle him.

[garbon]

Anyway, did he get any psych evals?