A group of Metropolitan Police Department officers and Metro Transit Police officers detained a group of young black children outside the Petworth Metro on Thursday night for at least 50 minutes.

Several passersby in the area stopped and filmed the incident and put several clips up online. Members of Showing Up For Racial Justice DC have shared clips of the incident on Twitter, and Black Lives Matter DC organizer April Goggans tells DCist that activists are mobilizing to bring the incident to the attention of local politicians.

Several clips on YouTube show the group of young children lined up against the wall as half a dozen police officers stand in front of them. At the start of one of the videos, two of the children are handcuffed. After some conversation with the officers, those two children are eventually unhandcuffed, but then the rest of the children are corralled near the wall and lined up. They’re kept standing there for nearly an hour, according to social media accounts. Police tell several passersby and people taking video that they’re conducting an investigation—one of the officers describe it as a “robbery investigation.”

MPD tells DCist in a statement that officers responded to the scene at about 10:20 p.m. on Thursday in response to a call about a fight in a nearby establishment. “Upon arrival, MPD officers located a group of 15-20 juveniles that were causing disruption inside of an establishment at the listed location,” MPD writes. “While waiting to review the surveillance footage of the incident, the juveniles were held at the location. The preliminary investigation revealed that one subject committed First Degree Theft, and was placed under arrest. The remaining juveniles were released.”

According to the police report from the incident, a suspect fled on foot down Rock Creek Church Road NW, and was later detained for stealing an iPhone XS Max and a Diet Coke. Police spokesperson Alaina Gertz said he was part of the group of juveniles detained outside the Petworth Metro.

At least one eyewitness describes the incident ending differently than MPD’s account. Antolina Padua, a D.C. resident who uses they/them pronouns, says that, from what they saw, the police eventually let all of the children go without arrest, saying the officers simply wanted to make sure they had everyone’s information. Padua and a couple of other people stayed on the scene until they saw the kids get on the bus and leave, Padua says. “These officers were insinuating that these children were involved in criminal activity,” Padua says.

Padua says they were exiting the Metro station on their way home when they saw the group of kids against the wall, surrounded by police. Padua says they stayed at the scene for about an hour, and called other people they know to watch the scene. “It just didn’t seem right. It just obviously felt wrong to me,” Padua says of seeing the group of kids surrounded by police.

One passerby can be heard on video confronting the officers as the incident unfolds. “Why do you all need six cops for some kids?” the man says. “It is my business because I’m a resident. I live out here just like they do. I mean, they’re from D.C. right?”

An officer sharply responds: “You have no idea. Are you saying they’re from D.C. because they’re black? That’s racist.”

“Are you crazy?” the man taking the video says.

Later, as he’s filming from a different angle, the man is approached by another officer. “Since you don’t have all the facts it’s not really fair for you to judge what’s going on,” the officer says. “I will tell you, I’ve been doing this a long time, and I think the officers look extremely relaxed and reasonable with what they’re doing, considering what I know they’re investigating.” He adds MPD and transit police are working together to protect people. The Metro Transit Police did not respond to a request for comment. 

The children themselves repeatedly ask police why they’re being detained. At one point an officer tells a child that they’ve “been over this 100 times—100 times.” Most of the children are standing around fidgeting with their hands in their pockets. A few start growing frustrated as time drags on.

“How long are you going to take?” one child says. “By the time we get home, police are going to stop us again because it’s fucking curfew.”

The incident started gaining traction among activist groups and residents on social media throughout the day on Friday. It comes just a couple of months after a similar stop and frisk of three young black boys in Capitol Hill in December. In that case, seven police officers detained three young boys, asking if they had a knife. Someone had reportedly called and said children matching their description had threatened a man near CVS with a knife. The boys denied it, but were reportedly detained for an hour before being released to family members. A neighbor who saw officers approach the boys initially filmed much of the incident, and community leaders criticized MPD for their handling of the situation.

This article has been updated to clarify that Antolina Padua uses they/them pronouns, and to correct the name of the iPhone XS Max.