Winter Haven police faced an fiery backlash Wednesday after pictures emerged on social media of an arrest that included a young girl lying face down on the ground with her hands behind her back, an officer facing the girl and her mother with his firearm drawn.

Shortly after 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, as the picture exploded quickly on social platforms, the department released body camera footage of the arrest and said that the young girl, seemingly less than 5 years old, was mimicking her mother as police ordered the woman to the ground. The mother and daughter were in a car with a man police were seeking in connection with a disturbance involving a firearm.

In a news release accompanying the video, police said the officers’ weapons were drawn out of caution because of the likelihood of a firearm, and “at no point was the officer’s weapon pointed at the child as confirmed by multiple cameras.”

According to the news release, the incident happened Tuesday when officers received a report of a disturbance involving a firearm at Santiago’s Market, 898 Havendale Blvd. NW.

Godfrey Hercules II, 29, was in an altercation with a store employee in the parking lot and was observed with a gun, police said. Hercules left the parking lot heading south on U.S. 17. Police put out a be-on-the-lookout alert for a red Nissan Altima with Hercules as the driver, a female passenger and a small child passenger.

Officers found the vehicle at the American Legion, 300 Ave. M N.W., Winter Haven, police said, and Hercules, the woman and the child had gotten out of the car. Police said Hercules was found on the side of the building and was quickly apprehended.

The woman, Mariah Banks, 27, was ordered to the ground, and she immediately complied, police said, and the young child mimicked the mother’s actions. Banks was handcuffed, as shown in the video. Police said a Diamondback 9mm semiautomatic pistol was found in the vehicle.

“Officers responded with an appropriate level of caution with the understanding there was a weapon involved seeking to resolve the situation,” the department said in the release. “When approaching Hercules and Banks, officers could not have known who was in possession of the firearm. As soon as the officer approaching Banks became aware of the presence of the child, he immediately pointed his firearm towards the ground at a low-ready position.

“At no point was the officer’s weapon pointed at the child as confirmed by multiple cameras,” the release said.

Backlash on social media to the image of the girl lying on the ground next to her mother was intense. Much of it centered on the belief that the officer was pointing his gun at the child or that the child had been handcuffed.

A Facebook post for Black Lives Matter Restoration Polk Inc., said, “Winter Haven Police got 24 hours to apologize for allowing that little girl to be on the ground or it’s going down about that black child.”

“Y’all got 24 hours to issue a public apology to that little girl and the family. And I want to know why she’s on the ground, why’s she’s in handcuffs, if she’s in handcuffs and why she got her hands behind her back. Where the training at, who didn’t pick that baby up off that ground.”

A user on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, said, “Winter Haven Police Department with German Shepard, handcuffs toddler and mother in Florida.”

Winter Haven Police Department with German Shepard, handcuffs toddler and mother in Florida pic.twitter.com/wSs7Vl0yg2

— WipeMeDown (@KenCutty_) March 5, 2025

Another post juxtaposed an image of the statue out in front of Winter Haven police headquarters with the image of the girl on the ground.

“This statue is named ‘The Protector’ and it sits dead center of WHPD. It’s modeled after a young African American girl and a police officer.

The young girl was never handcuffed in the police body cam footage or a video from social media. In the video taken by bystanders, one officer can be seen handcuffing banks while the other stands back, his gun clearly pointed at the ground and finger off the trigger.

In the body camera footage, as officers move around a vehicle with their guns drawn and pointed in Banks’ direction, ordering her to the ground, one officer out of the frame. The officer whose body camera is shown has his gun drawn, but the gun is out of frame. As the officer clears the vehicle and Banks comes into the picture, she drops to the ground and the little girl, who was hidden behind her, comes into view for a split second. In that split second, the video appears to show the barrel of the officer’s weapon, previously out of the frame, entering the frame, pointing directly down toward the ground.

Hercules and Banks were released, along with the child, because store employee declined to press charges, police said. The department filed a complaint affidavit with the State Attorney’s Office for Hercules for affray and improper display of a weapon. It also filed a complaint for the store employee for affray.

Police said the Department of Children and Families was notified of the incident “because it was a violent crime committed in the presence of a child.”

The department said it would hold a news conference Thursday at 10 a.m. at the Police Department with Police Chief Vance Monroe, Assistant City Manager for Public Safety Charlie Bird and City Manager T. Michael Stavres.