D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine released a statement on Friday exonerating a 10-year-old boy who was handcuffed and detained by Metropolitan Police Department officers after an armed robbery last week.

“My office has reviewed multiple surveillance videos that captured the crime and we are now certain that there is no evidence that the 10-year-old boy played a role in the armed robbery,” the statement reads. “He is totally innocent.”

Racine also says in the statement that officers “acted in accordance with MPD policies and procedures.”

Video of the officers handcuffing the boy and leading him to a police cruiser was widely circulated on social media, where it generated backlash from activists and community members. In the footage, a small crowd gathered around the scene near H Street Northeast, yelling things at the officer as he handcuffed the boy. “He is a child! This is not okay,” someone said in the background of the video.

Police were on the scene investigating an armed robbery allegedly committed by a group of children nearby, MPD told DCist at the time. A young boy said that he was approached by several children who assaulted him, threatened him with a gun, and then stole his iPhone 7. The suspects ran off.

Shortly after, MPD stopped a group of juveniles that officers said matched a description given by the victim. Police determined that two of the children in the group, a 13 year old and a 10 year old, had been involved in the robbery, MPD said at the time. The 13 year old was arrested on site, while the 10 year old was handcuffed, put into a police cruiser, and driven a few blocks down, where he was released into the custody of his mother.

Because the boy was younger than 12, officers were required to consult with the watch commander of Youth and Family Services before moving to arrest him, per MPD general order. The watch commander decided not to arrest the boy on site, but MPD said that it would seek a “custody order” (the name for arrest warrants for juveniles) for the boy. The department alleged that the 10 year old was the one who had threatened the victim with a gun.

Police said they had found both an iPhone 7 and a BB gun at the scene.

Typically, the attorney general’s office does not comment on cases involving juveniles due to privacy laws, according to the Racine’s statement, which noted that the office was required to get a court order to release the statement. “But this is necessary because in the court of public opinion this innocent 10-year-old was deemed guilty and criminalized. Public statements were made about his alleged involvement in an armed robbery which he did not commit,” Racine says in the statement. “Pictures and video of him being led to a police car in handcuffs were widely circulated.”

Racine says police are continuing to investigate the crime against the other juvenile.

“We owe it to the young victim of this crime to hold the people who hurt him accountable. We also owe it to the 10-year-old who was incorrectly identified as an armed robber to set the record straight,” he says. “I am speaking to you today to publicly exonerate this young person and to stress the importance of the laws which protect the confidentiality of all of the young people involved in our justice system—both victims and offenders.”

Previously:
MPD Arrests At Least One Boy On Charges Of Armed Robbery