The Onondaga County Sheriff's Office is receiving public criticism after they falsely identified and handcuffed an 11-year-old school girl who was playing with friends in the snow, as a car thief. The incident occurred on Monday afternoon in the city of Syracuse.

Videos taken by the young girl's cousin and friends have surfaced on Facebook showing the deputies, all of whom were white, questioning the girl and showing her a picture of the suspect and telling her, "Girl, you gonna tell me that ain't you?" The girl and her friends continued to point out features in the photo that they say were clearly different, such as the fact that her hair was shorter and shoes were different.  A female deputy on the scene seemed to try to keep the incident "light hearted" by joking with the girl and her friends saying, "I've got 12-year-olds behind the wheel stealing cars." The Deputy is referencing the increase in youth crime and youth violent crime over the last few years in cities across New York State, including Syracuse and Utica. Some of those crimes have involved guns and homicides.

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The incident intensified when another patrol car came upon the scene and the deputy got out of his SUV and said, "That's her," claiming the young girl handcuffed was indeed the suspect and scolder her, walking up to her and saying "You're going to lie to me and tell me that's not you?" That's when the young girl began to cry and her friends, looking at the photo on a police cell phone, saying, "That's definitely not her."  The Deputy responded while walking away, "Listen, it is what it is. If you're honest that'll make it easy." Nine seconds later, the female deputy yelled over from another police car, "She's good to go. The other girl had way longer hair," she said. That's when the male deputy, who had been repeatedly telling the girl she would be okay, explained he was going to take off the handcuffs. As the girls nearby kept repeating, "this is crazy," the male deputy said you could see how the picture looked just like young girl and how the mistake could have been made. The young students kept disagreeing, saying even her shoes were different in the photo.

Meanwhile, the other male deputy who had just arrived came back to the girl said, "You guys are like twins. If it is you, you played it well today." The female Deputy immediately interjected and said, "If you look you can see...It's not her. This girl's got hair down to her ass." Then speaking again to the young girls, she said "I just watched the video and you guys are all like identical. It's nuts," she said. Another voice of a male deputy heard on the tape continued to apologize to the girls, stating "You matched the description pretty clearly. You're good to go. I'm sorry," he said.

As of publishing, the Onondaga Sheriff's Department has not made an official response to the incident.

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