The two police officers involved, James Festa and John Rigdon, have been with the department for three years, and both have been disciplined several times, according to their personnel files.
Police in Groveland, Florida were responding to a burglary alarm that was accidentally tripped upon Jean Guirand’s return home with his family. But police entered the house without announcing themselves, and upon seeing the 11-year-old they held her down at gun point, and pressed their knees down onto her back and yelled at her threateningly, as though she could somehow be a burglar.
Local WFTV reports that the girl, whos family members wished to leave unnamed due to her age, was in the home when officers James Festa and John Rigdon entered their house through the garage with their guns drawn and their critical thinking shut down.
“One of the officers was pushing me down and, when he was pushing me down, he put his knee on me and then the other officer still had his gun pointed at me,” the young girl told WFTV.
Jean Guirand, the father of the girl, filed a complaint with the police department, which assured him they would “conduct an internal investigation.”
“Someone should get fired for doing something like that to an 11-year-old,” Guirand explained. “She’s traumatized by it.”
Watch the girl interviewed by local reporters below…
