Mother: Daughter treated like ‘animal’ in Minnesota arrest

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The mother of a 13-year-old girl whose arrest by St. Paul police sparked an angry backlash on social media says officers were overly aggressive in handling her daughter who has a mental illness.

The woman says her daughter was “basically treated like an animal.” The Associated Press is not naming the mother in order to protect the juvenile’s identity. Video of the arrest captured by a witness shows two white officers struggling to arrest the teen, who’s black, as she screams and thrashes on the floor of a UPS store. The mother has accused the officers of racial bias.

Police say the girl violated a no-trespassing order, ran from police and resisted arrest. St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter said the arrest is “deeply disturbing” and called for an internal police investigation.